One plus one plus ‘one on one’

 One of the main callings of the church is to make disciples.   I have heard people suggest that if we just    ‘feed the sheep, they will naturally reproduce.’   The times I have seen churches try that approach, the result has always been a church focused on those already present and those who have not known Jesus yet are left to fend for themselves outside the church.  That doesn’t meet with the call to make disciples for me.  Jesus said He came to “seek and save those who are lost.’  (Luke 19:10) Those who want to follow Him need to be about the same things. 

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Deep Wounds

A lady in my neighborhood takes in a few children whose parents work.  Some of them go off to school from her home on the bus.  Others are there all day.  Many times in the morning as I leave she is sitting out front with the younger child while the older ones wait for the bus.  Yesterday as I drove past a little boy that I’ll estimate at four years of age was standing in the driveway, distraught and crying over and over again, “Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy….” 

Trash to Treasure

A few weeks ago I had a children’s sermon that focused on God doing things when we were not looking.  I had in my bag a little daffodil bulb and a pot of bulb that had been forced and were in bloom.  The plan was to bring out the bulb first and then the flowers to talk about the bulbs being buried and forgotten; yet God was causing them to grow.  Children’s sermons often go a different direction than intended.  That may be the nature of the beast.  It makes it scary for the minister and entertaining for the congregation.  I pulled the bulb out of my bag and asked, “Does anyone know what this is?”  A four-year-old boy looked at it disdainfully and said, “It’s trash!”  When the laughter subsided I made some kind of recovery and got to my point.  I think it was OK, but this week I’ve been thinking of that sermon—not mine but the four-year-old’s.  I needed that sermon this week.  I’ve been facing a lot of stuff that really feels like trash.