I was reading an article from the H.E.B. Foundation Magazine Echoes, and I came across a description of a summer retreat led by Adam Neder. The retreat was titled “Faith in the Ruins.” A description of the retreat in the promotional material for it sums it up: “…as challenges multiply, as the church perfects the art of discrediting itself, as friends leave the faith, many Christians are feeling exhausted, disoriented, and discouraged. Some wonder how much longer they can stick with Christianity–or even if they want to.”

That’s where the 10 observations by Neder came in. I looked at them and thought I would do a series of prayer journals on the 10 observations the article mentioned Neder covered during the retreat.

#9. Being a savvy consumer makes it harder to find a Church.

Dear God, I cannot tell if Neder is saying this is a good thing or a bad thing. Is he a proponent of being picky about your church or is he being critical? I’m not sure. So instead of basing what I say on what I think his opinion is, I want to just react to this statement on its own.

I’m going to take the position that this is a negative and we should not try to be a “savvy consumer” when it comes to church. In fact, I think one of the problems with the current church is that we see ourselves as the “consumer” or the “customer.” We think the pastor and staff are there to serve what we expect of them. In other words, I expect them to deliver the sermons, children’s programs, adult Sunday school, etc. that I like. But what if??? What if you intend for the church, in my life, to make me holy more than to make me happy? What if you designed it to be a place for me to offer myself as your living sacrifice? What if you have made it my job to love the pastor as I love myself? And the staff? What if my job on Sunday is to be concerned more with the people for whom you have me there than the people I think are there for me? Yes, there are times when I need to receive, but those times are far fewer than the times I need to give.

I heard a pastor yesterday tell a story about a disenchanted group of people in his church who sent their spokesperson to his office to confront him. There was a lot of judgment in their words to him. They had talked and gotten themselves into a frenzy and now they had taken it upon themselves to do what they perceived to be your bidding. The thing it seems they were missing was love. Compassion. Concern.

I was in a church about 12 years ago that went through a terrible split over a vocal minority who were not exhibiting your love. Well, it wasn’t as much of a split as the pastor, a gentle soul, got reassigned, sweet and good families found another place to worship because of the strife and fallout from the conflicts, and that group eventually ended up moving on anyway.

So back to selecting a church. What if I totally changed how I selected a church? What if I walked into a building and asked myself, “Does this place have needs that I can uniquely fill with what I bring to the body?” Instead of, “How do I like her or his preaching?” “Is the Sunday school good?” “Do they have a good enough youth group and/or children’s program?” “Are they serving the community enough?” What if I simply asked, “Can this place use me?” And not in a spirit of me coming in and “fixing” the church, but me coming alongside and loving others through my service. Maybe a church isn’t that hard to find when I have a different attitude towards my selection criteria.

Father, Holy Spirit, help me to be an encouragement to my friends who are pastors. Help me to be a servant at the church where you have planted me. Help me to be a source of love. Help me to be a channel of your grace. Use me. And help me to do it by exuding you–by exuding your Holy Spirit. By exuding love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, kindness, and self control (I might have missed one or two there, but you know what I mean). In short, love the world through my life, and let the flame of your love spread to others, starting with me.

I pray this through the gift of Jesus being my Lord,

Amen