Heart Tracks - Concerned, Or Anguished?

     I recently listened to a sermon from the late David Wilkerson, founding pastor of the Times Square Church in New York City.  It was a strong message but one thing that resonated in my heart was his questioning of whether we in the church are concerned, or in anguish over the state of our culture, the culture of the church and of the lives within it.  He said that we don't lack for concerned people, for the weakness and decay of our culture and the degree to which it has seeped into the church is evident to all of us.  We are concerned about it, but are we experiencing deep anguish in our souls and spirits because of it?

    I recently spoke with a godly retired pastor who's attending a fellowship within a sister denomination.  The church has undergone deep and heartbreaking trials which have resulted in the loss of its pastor, and a demoralized grieving congregation left in the wake of it all.  Denominational leadership has become involved and while making sure that the pulpit is filled while seeking a new pastor, has determined that the most effective means of dealing with the wreckage that has been left in the wake of sin and tragedy was to hire an outside "evangelical" consulting team to come and do a study of the church and determine what its greatest needs were.  Surveys and questionnaires were passed among the people.  Countless leadership meetings were called with discussions sometimes going into the early morning hours.  After a time, the consultants along with the leadership came up with a number of recommendations for the fellowship; ranging from the people agreeing to revamp their worship style, doing away with music that was deemed a "turn-off" to younger people, to changing the look of their church, moving from their spacious sanctuary into their fellowship hall, and transforming that sanctuary into a play area, complete with a very large sliding board and other child friendly attractions.  They felt this would make the church much more attractive to young families, and show that the church was more user friendly than the surrounding community may have believed.  However, all that was done stands out not so much by what they were doing, but by what they were not doing.  In the midst of the studies, the surveys, the meetings, there had been no coming together as a people to pray.  There had been no crying out to God for the church, its community, or for the pastor who had fallen.  Oh, each session was preceded by a short prayer, and then it was on to the truly important matter of "running the church."  T. Austin-Sparks said more than 50 years ago, "Organized Christianity today can't understand anything that is not organized, advertised, or is not 'run.' "  We're skilled at organizing, but how well do we function as organs of His life?

    Not long ago I read a missionary in Eastern Europe's account of something the Lord showed her.  She had gone out one morning asking God to show her His face in the people she met.  She expected to have Him show her all the vast potential in the people she encountered that day, but as she came out onto the street, she heard the noise of a dingy, dirty bus.  It was filled with men staring vacantly out the windows, seemingly, staring at her.  She then realized what the bus was.  It was carrying criminals, condemned to die, to the facility where the executions would be carried out.  In their lost vacant eyes, she saw the face of Christ as she realized that everywhere, including the pews of our churches, sit people who are riding that same bus.  Regardless of how they look outwardly, they are moving through life, trapped on that bus, not only moving to death, but "living" it as well.  For such, meetings, surveys, and sliding boards will have no effect.  A world friendly church will have no effect on those lives.  I know we must change our methods but not our message, but beloved, do we anymore even know what our message is?  Do we really know the One who is the Messenger?  There can be only one way to respond to the needs of our culture, the church, and the lives that move in both; on our faces before Him.  Empty vessels, filled with His life, in order to be vessels of that life to all around us.

    In I Samuel, Hannah, who would be the mother of Samuel, was "pouring" her heart out to the Lord, "praying out of great anguish and sorrow."  She came to that place of prayer seeking a son, but left it possessing not only His promise, but His presence.  All things were new.  We in the church don't need another brainstorming session, we need heavenstorming prayer.  We need broken spirits seeking a whole God, and seeking Him till we fully receive all the fullness and wholeness He offers.  We're no longer concerned with whether we're attractive to the world, but are we attracting Him?  Will we be willing to move from being concerned but unchanged, to the place of laying hold of Him, by way of our own Gethsemane?  Will we, or, will we just go to another meeting, take another survey, and wait for the next seminar, conference, or pastor?  What do we, you, really desire?

Blessings,

Pastor O