The Church of Me

As I stood facing the crowd I had a feeling that I can’t say I really experienced before – deep compassion for lost people and a desire to reach out to our community. I care about people who don’t know this wonderful gift that I have received from God but then again it seemed like my compassion stopped when it became inconvenient for me.

You see I figured out I wanted to attend the Church of Me with Lead Pastor ‘I’.

I want to come to church when it’s convenient for me
I want to sit near the back where I am comfortable
I want to park near the door so I don’t have to walk far
I want to to worship to music I like
I want to not have to sit for more than a certain amount of time
I want the message to be something that I enjoy
I want to be able to do my thing without being inconvenienced for others

It was a shocking revelation when I realized that this was my attitude towards church. Maybe it’s a product of a society that says “It’s all about you” or you should “Have it your way”. Well, what I think that most Christians need to realize is that the Church isn’t Burger King. You can’t special order up your Sunday morning service and get it just the way you want it.

This was something that since coming to my current church I figured out. Now I’ve changed my attitude and I no longer desire to attend the Church of Me. I try to do everything in my power to help others feel welcome and comfortable. I serve on our outreach team, I sit in the front of the church, I park in the back of the parking lot, I don’t care how long the sermon is and I don’t care what music we worship to. When I adopted this attitude I found that I suddenly could “hear” what I’ve been missing. When I stopped becoming so self consumed I was able to see the true need to reach others and I wanted to do my part. I realized it wasn’t all about me.

As I pleaded on Sunday to get volunteers to help me start a car pool to free up spaces in our extremely overcrowded parking lot and I (as well as our pastor) shared about the true need and the fact that most people when they can’t find a parking place will never return to a church. I assumed that we’d have a great turnout after the service to discuss the details with me. Then I stood in the foyer and watched everyone walk out the door – having no interest in helping resolve the parking situation.

I then watched out the window and saw how many single people/people without children and how many cars they accounted for and it was a sad number. When we went to plead on a more personal level with people we always received the excuse, “I just can’t get here 30 minutes earlier for the carpool”. I then realized that not everyone had decided to stop treating Church like they’re attending the Church of Me.

My question to everyone is, “What do you think about the Church of Me? Do you agree that it’s not all about the found but about the broken and lost?”

In Christ,
- John