Live Our Way Into Believing It!

Growing up in the church has helped me to understand its many rich traditions. It has helped me to always feel like I was apart of the bigger picture. Discipleship in the church has helped me grow spiritually in a nurturing environment. I count it a huge blessing knowing that many in the world are never so fortunate to grow up with a Christian heritage. Yet, as I recollect my early formative years, I realize the churches I attended struggled with the same thing.
It seems many times the wonderful ways I learned to live out my faith turned out to be the very actions these churches struggled with modeling to their young people. And it is not just the three churches I attended growing up. As I observe, I see that often discipleship has become ingrown and self-centered.
Our consumer culture wants to force its way into the church making it difficult to plan anything that will not be "the most fun you've ever had". This morning I was talking to my wife on the way to work. She said, "This Rake and Run event for the teens is the most excited they have been over a service project." Its true. They were excited. It is probably because it sounds like the "raking" version of ringing doorbells and then running off. Well the truth is, we will be spending two and a half hours working hard to clean up the yards of several elderly people. Where's the excitement in that? Well to rally the troops, I believe I have a "leaf fight" and a "rake fight" up my sleeve when they realize Rake and Run is nothing more than the chores they do at home except they don't get credit from their parents for it. Am I tricking them into serving God? I believe with gentle guidance they are more likely to live their way into believing it, rather than believe their way into living it.

Anyway, that's about it.