|
Today Bronaugh held its bi-monthly administrative council meeting. Although I’m always tired
before they begin, because they are noon meetings after I’ve conducted three worship services and driven fifty miles,
I always look forward to them because they are preceded by a dinner. And the food is great. We have only fifteen or
twenty attend these events, but the cooks--whoever they may be--always seem to be trying something new. I mean,
these are special events. For the food alone, I wish we could have these dinners monthly. Anyway, a major item on
the agenda for the council meeting was children’s ministry. How can we get more children in our Sunday School?
Should we do a survey? Should we somehow work through the local public schools? (This town has a population of
about 200, but is the center of a school district.) I listened quietly through all the discussion. Then, I was asked if I
had anything to say on this topic. I declined, saying that I was just listening. Actually, I wanted to say something,
but I wasn’t sure how to say it without upsetting a bunch of people. What I wanted to say was this: “Why don’t we
invite parents to attend our Sunday School? That would be a sure way of getting their children to attend, because
they probably would not come alone.” The reason I did not say this is that half the adults attending this meeting--the
leaders of the church--do not themselves attend Sunday School classes. They show up only for worship. I guess I’m
a believer in modeling behavior and invitational evangelism. That is, we build our churches by being involved in them
ourselves and then inviting others to get involved. But here, sitting beside me, were about a half-dozen adults,
expressing concern for the absence of children in Sunday School, but not attending themselves. Go figure.
I am trying to get a missions project started that involves all three congregations. One of the
pains of a three-point charge is that it seems I am doing everything three times. The project has no precedent as
being based in a multiple-point charge. All the promotional material speaks of it as being a project for individual
churches. Well, mine are too small to take on the financial obligation of this project, so I’m trying to split it three
ways. One congregation approved this last month. The project is to provide $900 a year for three years to support a
pastor in Mozambique. That works out to $300 a year for each congregation. That breaks down to $25 a month, less
that $6 a week. One can barely buy a meal for that. But still, it seems like a gut-wrenching decision for Christians.
And they couldn’t even put it in the budget. Instead, they suggested a free-will offering. Well, at least they approved
it. I should be happy for that. And now to get Sheldon to approve it also. That will probably be more difficult. They
can barely pay their apportionments.
posted by
John Harrison at 7:30 PM
|
