KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Maintenance
LIKE THE EARLY first-century church, congregations today can drift into a maintenance posture...
Here are some indicators of a maintenance-minded congregation: 1) When elders' meetings focus on institutional concerns (budgets and buildings) rather than on mission concerns (reaching new people, reconciling relationships, and rallying to change the injustices in the community); 2) when budget planning begins with what we have to work with rather than what God has in mind for us; 3) when annual planning consists of doing what we did last year, just in another calendar year; 4) when the elders, deacons, and minister's energy focuses more on humoring those in the pew than on penetrating their communities, families and workplaces for the cause of Christ. Congregations that fit this profile have allowed the hidden influence of institutional maintenance to sidetrack the mission of the body of Christ. (Matthew Morine)
KneEmail: "And to the angel of the church of Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Rev. 3:14-17).