Christian Living

---

Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday October 11, 2006

A man asked me why the late constant emphasis on revival or if you prefer renewal? I gave his question some thought and the answer is long enough for a good size book. The lack of zeal for Christ and the reasons for this lack of 'fire' would fill most of the pages.

Like most pastors and Christian leaders I am always praying for volunteers. And like most Christian leaders I lament the loss of such volunteers. If you are aware of the statistical rates for such workers you know that I spend more time than Jeremiah wearing my lamenting clothes.

In feeble efforts to stem the tide of volunteer burn out all sorts of programs are in place, and a 'thriving' local body rivals the top sales organizations with incentives and a continuing motivation program that such giants as Zig Ziglar and others would turn green with envy to package and sell.

I came across a little note the other day that may help to put this situation in perspective and in the long run save us all a lot of grief.

"Perhaps the only thing worse than losing volunteers is when a volunteer in your ministry unplugs from his or her relationship with God and stays involved in your ministry." - Bill Allison, Recruiting, Motivating & Retaining Volunteers in the Church.

WOW.

Re-read and muse upon Bill's wisdom.

Jesus talked about such an event in His words of wisdom and rebuke to the church at Laodicea mentioned in Revelation 3:14-22. These solemn words are spoken to a group of well off people who seem to have been very busy in things religious, but totally unplugged from any daily walk with Jesus.

We live in the age of warm Christianity, a disease which affects clergy as well as the man in the pew, though statistically there's a much higher chance of the pew being occupied by the fairer sex. My long time mentor, pastor and friend Dr. Tom Wallace commented often about a lady who after one of his grand sermons gushed, "Oh, Dr. Wallace, thank you for such a warm sermon." Tom really swelled up on that remark until he checked with Webster who defined warm as "Not so hot."

I thank the Lord for the volunteers in the different branches of ministry to which He has called me. I could not do very much without them. And I have learned to thank Him for the ones who upon cooling off, go ahead and save everyone agony by ceasing to pretend a love for Jesus and His work. God uses them to cause me to check on my own heart temperature. It should read "HOT."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2006 Use with credit.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE