when you go to a restaurant on the weekends and it's busy they start a waiting list. they start calling out names, they say "dufresne, party of two. dufresne, party of two." and if no one answers they'll say their name again. "dufresne, party of two, dufresne, party of two." but then if no one answers they'll just go right on to the next name. "bush, party of three." yeah, but what happened to the dufresnes? no one seems to care. who can eat at a time like this - people are missing. you are selfish... the dufresnes are in someone's trunk right now, with duct tape over their mouths... and they're hungry! that's a double whammy. we need help. "bush, search party of three! you can eat when you find the dufresnes."
pastor and author jim elliff observes a similar phenomenon taking place in our churches, albeit much less humorous...
out of southern baptist's 16,287,494 members, only 6,024,289, or 37 percent,
on average, show up for their church’s primary meeting, according to statistics
from lifeway christian resources.
how is it that we readily give such large numbers when asked about our "membership",(when, biblically, being a member means being an active participant, and a growing and maturing christian) when we *know* that a much smaller percentage actually show up? where are those "members", what have we done to communicate their responsibility as members, and what do we do when they show no interest in coming back?
read elliff's entire sobering article at http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=21189
more to come...
-stephen
2 comments:
HELLO.
I was perusing your links on your blog and came across the last 3 which actually resulted in a large laugh. Fantastic. I clicked on the chick-fil-a link and was struck with a new thought because of their site. What will happen to them if there is an outbreak of the Avia influenza (as they call it) or Bird flu. I bet those accounts on the newscast make your heart start beating faster don't they....yeah they do...
Ron
ron,
that was some very insightful commentary on missing christians.
please do enlighten us more with your FANTASTIC wisdom...
*smirk*
oh.. and if the bird flu does hit the us.. ill die happy.. and not hungry,
-stephen
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