Only the Lonely

Our music is rapt with great songs about the number one and how lonely a number it is. 

One is the Loneliest Number by Three Dog Night.

Only the Lonely by Roy Orbison

Lonesome 77203  by Hawkshaw Hawkins

Oh Lonesome Me by Don Gibson

Lonesome, On’ery and Mean  by Waylon Jennings

And the list goes on and on.  One thing that we are afraid of, whether we admit it or not, is being lonely.  One of the reasons that suicide rates soar during the holidays is the fear of being alone.  Alcoholism and drug abuse is a common thread among loners. 

Genesis 2:18. 
“It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable to him.”

God knew that it was not good for man to be alone.  Man has gone to great lengths to make sure that he is not alone.  The current riptide of Social Media makes sure we are not alone.  People carry that mobile phone with them everywhere to make sure that they can be found.  The radio in the car is not enough company for us anymore, so we talk on the phone while we drive or even worse text. 

So why do so many people that need to have company all the time, want to keep God in their heart.  I hear it all the time, I don’t need to go to church, I know God and my relationship is personal.  That’s about the only thing that people keep personal, just check out Facebook and people tell their innermost feelings. 

Jesus told us to go make disciples in all nations and tell the Good News, yet all we tell people about is about the new restaurant that we found.

That’s a sad commentary.  I don’t know if it is society, the government or something else that has cause Christians to be put into a box.  Like a box of cereal that we only take out on Sundays, put a little in the bowl and put the box back until next Sunday. 

I know many churches are moving away from Sunday night services, because people just don’t show up.  It’s hard to compete with a Super Bowl.  I can’t believe that I just said that, but’s it true. 

We miss out on so many blessing because we keep Jesus in our pocket.  I have found that church is the place that I can go and not be lonely, be with believers, and find the courage to step out on faith and try to do God’s work.  It’s a joyful place, a place to find comfort and a place where all are welcome. 

My church does something that I love.  Before the pastor delivers the sermon, we stop and welcome everybody and shake hands and hug our fellow members.  Feels like a family. 

I would encourage you to find a church family and stay there.  Don’t keep Jesus in your heart, share him.  Do what he has commanded and share the Good News.

We gotta find a new name for Stewardship.

My preacher has been preaching about stewardship the last couple of weeks.  Gives a lot of people the Heebie-jeebies when the preacher gets on this subject.  It's about money and about your service to the church.  Well just so you understand.  Only people my age (late 50's) and older know what Heebie-jeebies is, and the same goes for stewardship. 
Young adults have a hard time with this word.  Lots of "with it" churches uses the words like soul prints or your personal calling.  They understand these terms, but stewardship sounds like the work of a bunch of stodgy old deacons.  Therein lies the problem.

While we were on the subject of stewardship, my church began talking about their vision.  Now I just want to say here that this church will celebrate it 100th birthday in 2014.  Kind of long in the tooth to just now be talking about a vision.  In reality, the neighborhood has grown tremendously.  So, I think my church needs to talk about it's vision. Just got to add that this isn't the first time, my church has looked for a vision.

The problem is when you start talking about vision it always turns to tangible things, like new buildings and such.  I hear people say, we just can't attract people to an old church, when so many new churches have popped up around us.  Whoa, need to stop right there.  Granted, I don't want to go to a run down building either, but our vision can't be based on tangible objects. 

Jesus wrote down the vision for the church in "The Great Commission". Quoting from Wikipedia,
some version of the great commission appears in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and in the Book of Acts, which is the second part of Luke-Acts. Details vary from book to book, see Gospel harmony for the attempts to harmonize them. In Matthew, Jesus directs the disciples to baptize people of all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, similar to the Trinitarian formula of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In Luke, Jesus tells the disciples to preach repentance and forgiveness, and promises that they will have divine power. In John, Jesus says the disciples will have the Holy Spirit and the authority to forgive sins and to withhold forgiveness.^[2] In Acts, Jesus promises the disciples that the Holy Spirit will inspire them.

I have to confess, I have only been back to my church for a year now.  Was out in the world for a number of years.  My church is one of my greatest joys.  Stewardship and visions go hand in hand.  They have to be found together. 

We have all heard the argument that I don't have to go to church to pray to Jesus.  I know Jesus is in my heart and that is all that I need.  I cannot disagree with that statement, yet that person in my opinion will always feel like something is lacking.  You find a lot of people in the church that just come to church and don't participate in anything else.  That's OK too, but I feel that person is going to be prone to drift away from the church.  You know that "any old reason" excuse.  I can speak from personal experience here.

You see the great thing about church is that it allows all the members to contribute their talents.  We all have different talents and no talent is greater or less than any other talent, if they are used for Jesus.  Not everybody is going out to be missionaries or lead crusades. Lots of people work behind the scenes and may for example,  just pick up the church grounds.  Remember the church is the house of the Lord.  This person that picks up the grounds is just as great in God's eyes as the person that preaches to large congregations.  Everyone matters to Jesus.

So, if you worship at home or just go to church and then go home, you are missing out on a blessing. 
People at church are people too and sometimes they do or say things for the wrong reason.  It happens. But I believe that the people in a church that really contribute to that church don't do it for the wrong reasons.  They do it because they feel that God has led them to this work. 

Just to tie this all up.  When you walk with the Lord and you do it over and over again, the path just gets deeper and better.  Jesus is there with you and will carry you on this path when you can't walk it yourself.  You will find the people in your church in that path with you.  Believers walking with Jesus.  I am telling you it don't get any better than that.  I remember as a small child a path that led to my grandmother's house from my house.  It was only about 50 yards long.  My mom would let me go by myself, but told me to stay on the path.  It wasn't a straight path but I felt safe on that path.  And I know now that my mom watched me all the way.  That's how Jesus walks with you.  That's why I have committed myself to my church.  I get the blessing and it's worth it.  And I get to walk with true believers. 

One more thought... If you follow the words of Jesus and go out and tell others about him.  Good things will happen.  A church will grow and maybe need a new building someday to house all the new believers.  The most important thing is to pray and plan. 

God Bless You
Fitzhugh Fits Me, Does it Fit You
Fitzhugh Baptist Church
Mike

PS.  Anybody that knows me knows that I talk a lot.  Can't help it.  I found this video about another church somewhere in this country.  It's a great video, and I challenge my church and all other churches to try and be like this church.  This should be the goal of all churches. Please watch this video and pray.

I Recognize that Church

I've been a Southern Baptist for over 40 years now.  Still not sure exactly what that means.  The other day a friend of mine told me he was a recovering Baptist.  I think that I know what he means.  Wrote this little poem that kind of tells the Baptist story for a lot of folks. 

Baptists on Sunday

Stand up, Sit Down

Pass the plate around

Special tunes

Be home soon

The preacher's right on time.

Invocation

Convocation

Shake the preacher's hand

Car zoom

Get there soon

Just to get in line.

Sit down, say a prayer

Eat some Luby's fare

Give special thanks to the Lord

We beat the Methodists there.

I pick on the Methodists here because the Catholics always had early Mass and were through early anyway.  Besides, there were always having a Pot Luck Dinner at the church.  We Baptists finally caught on to that one. 

I have been reading parts of a book, "And Jesus Said", by William Barclay. This little books explains the background of the parables spoken by Jesus in the New Testament. I was particularly interested in Matthew 25: 14-30.  We have all read or heard The Parable of the Talents.  Think of talents as money.  The master was going away for a while and left 3 of his servants with different amounts of money.  Listen to the following video to hear the Bible Verses. 

There are many lessons to be learned from this Parable.  But the last verses in this reading stood out to me.  Quoting the book, “In Matthew the parable nears the end with the saying that the man who already has will receive still more, while the man who has not will lose what he has.” 

Ponder on this a minute.  Look deep.  The book goes on to say that this verse is a universal law of life.  What?  Keep thinking. 

When you were young and your mom forced you to take piano lessons, you learned to play a little bit.  You hated it and quit.  Now today, you’re lucky if you can play chop sticks.  Now think about your church pianist or music director.  Don’t you love to hear them play?  You may have had that opportunity, but you lost it. 

Do you get it yet?  The person that learns and keeps learning gets better and better, while the one that quits playing, loses the little that they had.   

I’ve taken a long time getting to this point, but now think about your church in regards to this verse.  

I ask you, Is your church growing? Are you investing in the church?  Or like the 3^rd servant are you just trying to keep what you have.  So many Baptist Churches are so steeped in tradition that they are just trying to keep what they have.  They think that taking any chances is bad. And they just won't take a chance. 

We are so used to the old hymns that we sometimes reject the new music that is coming.  I have heard people complain about guitars and drums in a service.  It doesn’t sound like that old tinny piano that you used to hear while sitting next to your grandmother.  And you can still hear her voice, and she is off key and shrill but you cling to it.   Listen to this video and see if it doens't bring back some memories.  Maybe last Sunday..  I think I hear my grandma's shrill voice if I close my eyes and listen.

Now listen to this modern version of Bringing in the Sheeves and tell me which version would the young people today like to hear.  Would playing this version constitute taking a chance.  For some it would. 

I don’t go to my church because it’s a Baptist Church.  I go because I love the people and feel God’s presence there.  Like I said earlier, I am not sure what being Southern Baptist really means and I really don’t care.  But I have seen some Baptist Churches drop the Baptist name and become a nondenominational church.  For the most part they are still a Baptist Church, they just don’t call themselves Baptists anymore.  I guess these are Recovering Baptists.  I really think that these churches are changing to meet the needs of their people.  I am not advocating this position, I am just pointing out that it happens.  And it's happening more and more frequently. 

Churches are full of people.  People just like you and me.  In my lifetime, I have seen many theological changes.  Some are good and some are bad, in my opinion.  Like this parable in Matthew, you either learn or lose.  You are either going forward in your knowledge or you are going backward.  There is no neutral.  The same is true in your knowledge and understanding of Jesus.  You can’t grow in the Lord unless you continually seek him. 

I think a lot of church members get lazy.  They let others do the work and they just sit quietly in their pews on Sunday. They only talk when they are complaining about changes in the church.  The people doing the work in the church are getting all the benefits.  They are growing in the Lord.  You stop and look at those in your church that are the hardest workers.  You can see Jesus in them.  Now look at yourself if you are not working in your church.  Church is pretty much a hobby for you. You go when you feel like it and stay home if you can find something else to do.  But you are always there on Easter. 

I am almost 60 years old.  The church member that I have been describing is me.  I have been a lazy Christian.  I have lost numerous talents because I didn’t want to change.  I hope and pray that that is the old me.  With the Lord’s help, I will continue to serve him. 

I am not talking about my church.  Although, I think that we have some tendencies there.  Change is hard for little country churches.  But, I think this applies to a lot of churches, not only Baptists.   

Please say a prayer for your church.


Please listen to the following Youtube Video by Paul Simon.  Slip Sliding Away.  I hear something different now as I relate this song to the Parable of the Talents.  Enjoy