The preacher answered the phone and the man on the other end said that he wanted to join his church. However, the man continued and said that he did not want to worship every week, he did not want to study the Bible, he did not want to visit the sick or serve as a leader or teacher and finally he did not want to tithe.

The minister commended him for his desire to be a member, but said, “I’m confident that the church you are looking for is located across town.” The pastor gave the man the address and the directions and wished him good luck.

When the man arrived at the address, he came face to face with the logical result of his attitude. There stood an abandoned church building that was boarded up and ready for demolition.

Too many people today want to “join a church” just to have their name on the roles. They don’t want to get involved and are definitely not interested in participating or serving. Their basic attitude is “don’t call me I’ll call you.” In other words, if I need a church for my daughter’s weeding or a reception hall for my folks 50th anniversary or a preacher to conduct a funeral I’ll give you a call. Other than that, don’t expect to see me very often.

JFK had the right idea… “Ask not what your church can do for you, ask what you can do for your church.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 7:17 pm and is filed under From The Pulpit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.