Ouch!

Change hurts. I am not sure what is about change that causes so much pain but it does. I feel like for the Church to be more effective we have to change the way we do things. My feeling is that most church people like to do what I call "ministry from a distance." What I mean by this is; they go to Church on Sunday morning, they may even put some spare change in the plate and they might even feel convicted to shout "Amen." But when it comes down to serving in a ministry, we are happy with staying in the seat. We will say special prayers for those who are not following Christ but when it comes to ministering we want to have "clean" hands. We are scared to be around people who look different, who act different,etc. I have noticed that we want the people to change before we come to them. Maybe we are the ones who need to change? From what I can tell in the Gospels, Jesus went to the places were people did not go.

For example: Jesus began His ministry in Capernaum - a poor fishing village, not a bustling metropolis. He spent time in graveyards, traveled through Samaria, went to ethnically mixed cities like Tyre and Sidon and other places (borrowed from Why Jesus Crossed the Road).

In the county that I live, we will have 900 men and women released from prison this year. We have 3,000 homeless people. And on any given Sunday over 250,000 people not in Church.

I guess what I am getting at is we need to be more like Jesus. I found this quote and would like to end with it:

"Nothing changes until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of changing."

May the Lord bless you and keep you.