New Orleans has more churches per capita than any other American city. As well as more bars per capita.
Less than 10 minute’s walk from the city’s glitzy Convention center I found blocks and blocks of run-down, tumble-down houses, many abandoned. On a 1 hour walk through this decrepit neighborhood, I must have passed fifty churches. Many of them advertised kids’ summer programs or revivals, no doubt run completely independently of each other. I wondered to myself: “So many churches, why not more of an impact?”
The Church is always a light, for the light of Christ inhabits within. But what kind of light, the Church itself determines. The Church can be a laser, brilliant and penetrating. Or a backlight, indirect, dim and diffuse.
What makes the laser so brilliant? Some lasers can even punch through steel. Lasers are not just focused. In addition, laser light is synchronized on a photon-by-photon level. A far, far greater impact is achieved through synchronization.
Think of the impact a synchronized Church could make in terms of: Neighborhood cleanup; children’s programs; providing jobs and services.
O Pastors! You cut the body of Christ into little pieces! You sweat and fret over the progress of your own fragment, but pay no heed to the advancement of the the entire Body. How can you advance the Body when you are not even aware of what the other parts are doing? Whose Church are you building? Stop quibbling and disfiguring His Bride, and start putting first things first.
Prayer: O Lord, forgive them, and open their eyes, that they might truly begin to build Your Church.
Pollen
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