Complacent Christianity

So the other day I asked one of my teenagers who is going on our Summer mission trip to Honduras "Hey, are you excited about going to Honduras?". The answer, "No, not really". It floored me. Here's a person raising $1000 to go to do the Lord's work, and the answer of "No not really" was not what I was expecting.

Move to last night, as I'm teaching my teenagers. The point of last night's lesson was simply to point out the complacency in Christianity. I brought to their attention how rarely ever does it seem like people are excited about God anymore. I pointed out that the complacency in the lives of adults is now dulling the excitement of our teenagers. No matter what you try to do for them, they don't seem to get all that excited.

It makes me think about that movie "The Never Ending Story", when the creature called "The Nothing" is attacking the very imagination and life of everyone and everything. Eventually, the Nothing destroys it all, and there is nothing left. Mainly, because people didn't care anymore.

I wonder if that is how Christianity suffers next. Simply from nothingness, Christianity could be dealt a severe blow.

Notice the next time you're at church how many faces do not have happiness on them. I have a vantage point of getting in front of the congregation weekly while I lead worship to see the faces of everyone in the room. Out of 200 people in the auditorium, I'm lucky if I see 5 or 6 smiling faces. The rest of them have that look that I like to now call "The Look of Nothing". Its not a smile, its not a frown, its a very complacent and apathetic. The joy of God may be in them, but they're doing everything they can from proving its there.

This week I'll be at Impact at Lipscomb University. I'm hoping while I'm there I can solve the apathetic and complacent attitude that I have in my life from time to time. From there, maybe I can help others realize the joy of God, and how they can help share that joy with others.

Think about it, seeing anyone smile nowadays is a rarity. When you see someone smile, its immediately noticeable. The smile catches on, and it spreads happiness, albeit just for a fleeting moment, but the happiness is spread.

Does anyone else feel like this? What do you think?

The Selling of an American Dream

I believe everyone at one point wants to own a home. Its the American Dream, to say that you own a home in this great land. Just about 8 months ago, we bought a home. Now, we must say goodbye to it.

It has been a good home to us. It has provided us warmth and comfort, a roof over our heads, and a garage to store lots of junk.

It has a small yard that can be cut in less than 45 minutes. It has three sad little trees in it. There's a crack in the driveway, flowers in the front yard, and a oil stain from my old cruddy car.

There's a pile of fur in the corner of our living room under our dog's bed. There's a small stain where she...well, you know.

Lots of sweat have gone into making the house into a home. We painted all the walls, I replaced the bathroom floor, and several other things, including a toilet, door frames, and other minor things. It taught me how to do home repair.

In the back, there's an exterior light I replaced that taught me a huge lesson in electricity: Make sure its cut off before you work on it.

The home we live in is a great little home, but now its time for someone else to own it.

Know anyone who wants to live in Olive Branch, MS? I've got a home for them.

Workcamp

Hey everyone! We're doing Memphis Workcamp this week, so I won't be blogging. We'll be scraping and repainting homes in downtown ghetto Memphis! Pray for us all! I'm actually in Orange Mound, which everyone here knows as "The place you never go, even in daylight..." but its not so bad.

Right now I have 4 crazy guys in my office...so I need to run!!!

A place called Guntersville

Guntersville, Alabama. About 30 miles Southeast of Huntsville, God made a place called Guntersville, Alabama. Complete with the Tennessee River and Lake Guntersville, this could be that little paradise place that many people don't know about. Rolling hills, a beautiful golf course, and all the boating and jet skiing one can imagine.

But that's not all that is there. Nestled at the foot of a small hill in the older part of town is the Guntersville church of Christ. There, about 400 people meet every Sunday morning to worship God.

The people there are really friendly, down to earth, and supposedly really good cooks. They are kind and courteous, rather laid back, and just enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

And after a year in the excitement of a big city like Memphis, it is a very inviting place to go to live. About 3 weeks ago, my wife and I were offered a job to go and work with the church in Guntersville, and we have accepted. We will be moving there in July.

Now, with this great town called Guntersville, and all the excitement it may offer, it also means we have to say goodbye.

We have to say goodbye to Emily and Abbey Randolph, two our teenagers here who have had such an impact on us. We've seen them grow spiritual while we've been here to the point that they are going to Honduras with us later this summer.

We have to say goodbye to the Henry family: Bud, Julie, Megan and Nick. The Henry family is just about one of the best families we've ever known.

We have to say goodbye to Stephanie and Anna, two junior high girls who live in the neighborhood. One Wednesday night they were riding their bikes in our parking lot. Almost a year later, they are still coming every Wednesday night.

We have to say goodbye to John and Keith and Karen, a great office staff that I get to work with almost daily.

There's so many, and the list could go on and on. Its funny how much of an impact people can have on you in just a short year, but it happens. I thank God for the year we've spent here. We've grown closer to so many.

Pray for us as we begin to make this transition. Summers are already busy enough as a youth minister, and now we've got to sell our house and move.

Thanks everyone, and God bless.