The Church United

I’m back in next weekend as we start VBS (which will rock – don’t miss it) and then I do a three week series on Ruth and a cool series after that called God’s Frat Party. So we’re back in the swing. The past two weeks of study break for me have been for the purpose of giving me time to plan the years preaching and work ahead on the things I think we need to be talking about as a church. It’s very hard to do that on the fly, when I’m working on the next weeks message. I’m now planned up through Easter and have a lot of things already rolling.

However, you also need to know that I’m going to be more committed to stepping away from the pulpit. I think this place is a little too dependent on me and that’s not healthy for any of us. So my goal is to do 4 or 5 weeks and then be off a week. We obviously have some great preachers on our staff (pray for Bill this weekend, he has a great message for you), and I obviously have some talented friends that we can bring in from time to time. So please don’t be disappointed if you show up every once in a while and I’m not in the pulpit. I promise you it’s always going to be Parkview quality. (and if you’re bringing friends for a weekend, you can always call and see who’s on).

Anyway, speech over. Part of the advantage of some time away from this place is that I can see what other things are going on in the world. I got to visit my brother in law, Doug’s new church in St. Louis last weekend. It was really fun because Doug has used several of our videos, like Christmas in the Attic and Krispus Kremus, so it felt like we were already a part of the church. It’s a great group in a great location and I’m very excited about what God is going to do. Please pray for the Wildwood Christian Church. We already share some members there, and I’d love to share our heart and soul with them. Doug is the one who preaches along side of me most weekends and he is very important to our ministry here. He’s kept me going, and vice versa.

The down side of visiting with other churches and their people is to hear of the pain and problems that have happened at places who should be lifting up Christ but end up just fighting with each other. Man, I’ve heard some tough stories and seen some church splits recently that really break my heart.

Actually, last week while I was in Missouri, I took a 200 mile ride back down to NW Arkansas to the famed place where I crashed my Harley (which is now in Kansas via e-bay) and broke my collar bone and had my lesson in mortality. I got “back on the horse” so to speak. It was a great ride and great to relearn my lesson.

But it was an angry ride as I rode through this beautiful countryside and started to notice HOW MANY FREAKING CHURCHES THERE WERE!

HONESTLY, there were as many churches as there were houses! Church of God, Church of Christ, Church of God in Christ, Baptist this, Baptist that, Assembly of something, Metho-prespby-reformed- itariun.
I just wanted to pull over and yell ‘WHY IN THE HELL – AND I MEAN THAT LITERALLY – CAN’T YOU ALL JUST GET TOGETHER AND ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING!” Hell is laughing – Hell is unaffected.
I know it’s because of people, human people. I was reading this in my quiet time and I laughed.
Mt. 11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’
These were obviously church people. They didn’t like anyone, and had biblical reasons for all of it!

Wow, I guess you can see how much this drives me crazy. When I spend time with my family and good friends who’ve been hurt so much by church people, it makes me want to RUN back to Parkview as fast as I can. And never let Parkview become a place like that. DO NOT MESS WITH ME ON THIS ONE! We will not split, we will not argue about dumb stuff, and we will not ever be the place that people look at and say “Oh, they used to have a great ministry going on there, but …”

I PITY THE FOOL.

Looks like I need to get back to preaching from the pulpit because it’s starting to leak into my blog.

Tim

Comments

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Preach it Brutha! Thank You, Lord for giving us pastors that teach us, with Your Word and by example, to see people through Your eyes & treat them (and each other) with Your Love & Grace.