During the morning check of the email inbox, another example of the absolute waywardness of the church was illustrated yet again. While most people would just ignore this email as it is so standard to see in our day, it is precisely what E.M. Bounds said the church should NOT do. It is saddening and sickening. On reading this, please do not take it as a vendetta against Greenville First, as this email is regularly seen from any large church that puts on a Sunday show.
Over the past few weeks in our All In series, “The Church Is _____,” we’ve been reminded that the church isn’t just a place we attend, it’s a people God has gathered and redeemed, and each of us has a part in what He is doing here.
This Sunday we’ll share a special moment together as a church during our Miracle Offering. We’ll bring our commitment cards and a one-time miracle offering as an act of faith and worship. If it’s easier for you, you can also complete your commitment using the online card at the link provided.
This isn’t about pressure or a campaign. It’s about trust, and as we walk through our giving pathway as a church, each of us is simply asking the Lord what our next step looks like and placing it in His hands.
Take a little time this week to pray and prepare your heart, and we look forward to worshiping together this Sunday.
With expectation,
Pastors Josh & Brittani O’Connor
Why does the email ask for an offering with no description of how it will be used? Why does it treat God as if He is a vending machine — that if the right amount is put in, what we want will come out? What the church does not need is to be defined, being defined perfectly in the Bible, not needing extra commentary. Multiple figures throughout history have tried to remind men of what the church is not, yet they still fail to listen. Why does a church need to maintain a webpage and online pay portals? They say this is not a campaign, yet the very things they are doing are the definition of a campaign. They wrap the message in cliché phrases that the religious community is used to, as if to try and hide their intentions.
Zooming in on the phrase “All In series” — wouldn’t “all in” be doing exactly what Jesus told the rich young ruler to do? Why not take what resources you already have as a body of believers and invite other believers to work alongside you as workers in a vineyard? Here is a suggestion: why not take what you spend on advertising, pay portals, and Sunday shows and go down and serve the less fortunate in the community. Make church this weekend an outreach, fellowship, and luncheon in tent city in Greenville and see the gritty. Get filthy in the truest sense of the word.
“Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’ And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”’” — Luke 12:15–20
