Journal-Review
December 15, 2010
By Pastor Gary Lewis
First United Methodist Church of Crawfordsville
We often use special words in the Church to describe certain efforts and events. For many, though, such words might leave them scratching their heads. For example, on Nov. 28, we began a new season in the church year known as “Advent.”
Advent is from the Latin word adventus meaning “coming.” It is the beginning of the Christian year and refers to a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Christmas. The Latin word adventus is the translation of the Greek word parousia, a common word used in reference to the second coming of Christ.
In other words, as we anticipate the coming of Christ to the nativity scene in Bethlehem we are also keeping our eyes open for the return of Christ in the final days of the world.
Another word, or phrase, we often hear about in the Church is the “Kingdom of God,” or the “Kingdom of heaven.” When you read the Gospels (the first four books of the New Testament), it seems this is the only thing Jesus wanted to talk about. In fact, some 120 times in the Gospels, in one way or another, he refers to that Kingdom.
This is exactly what Jesus came to do: to establish the Kingdom of God, “on earth as it is in heaven. “When the disciples came to Jesus saying “Teach us to pray,” Jesus tells them to pray for this, that God’s kingdom would come, that God’s will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
A seminar speaker once suggested to some church leaders, “Each one of us has a few strengths and many weaknesses. Identify your strengths and work hard to hone them and don’t spend time bringing your weaknesses up to the level of mediocrity.”
I like what the late John Wooden, a hall-of-fame basketball coach, once said about weaknesses: “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
I have been thinking quite a bit lately about the future of the Church. “What are the strengths of our congregations? How can we own them and hone them?”
I have been reading the book “When the Sand Castle Crumbles,” by Jim Somerville, pastor of First Baptist Church of Richmond. In it, he describes how the church needs to get back to its primary task of Kingdom work.
“This is what I think the church of Jesus Christ ought to be doing – bringing heaven to earth – and the more I think about it the more I think the Lord’s Prayer is a perfect reminder. It’s the kind of prayer a soldier might pray before going onto the battlefield, the kind of prayer a missionary might pray before going onto the mission field.”
If the churches in Montgomery County would view Kingdom building in such a light, imagine how it could change things. “As a result, church begins to happen everywhere, all the time, and not only in our building (on Sunday morning).”
Here’s how to do it. Somerville writes, “Just look around for anything that doesn’t look like heaven and then roll up your sleeves and go to work.” Perhaps one person will see a need to help feed the hungry at the FISH food pantry, another to serve at the weekly soup kitchen, or share the gospel with people who don’t know Jesus.
Some might volunteer to work with Bud Rose at Habitat for Humanity. Some people might visit those in the nursing homes, others will make time to have coffee with a friend in need, still others will teach children in Sunday school.
Somerville makes this declaration: “Let’s stop counting how many people happen to be in church on Sunday morning and instead start counting how many times church happens between one Sunday and the next.”
The Christmas season is a perfect time to begin practicing Kingdom work. The world is going to be all anxious and in frenzy mode; the newsmakers will be talking endlessly about what’s wrong with the world.
Are you willing to roll up your sleeves and go to work – to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth?
For 2011, I plan to conclude every staff meeting and every church meeting I attend with these amended words of the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done IN CRAWFORDSVILLE as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
