Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday September 14, 2007

An old story has that a pilot announced that due to storms and severe turbulence plus the loss of navigation aids "Ladies and gentlemen, we are lost, but according to our calculations we are making good time."

This old one came to mind as I was thinking of the current state of mind in the churches. Most really have no idea of just where they are, or where they are supposed to be going, but we sure are making a lot of noise along the way.

Each week I receive a trash can full of wonderful "new" ideas that will cause our church to grow into a mega ministry. Trouble with most of the "stuff" is that it is false. The info, if followed will cause our church to become like the goofy crowds filling such palaces as Reverend Ted Haggard's haven for fowl of the air, which is an allusion to the nasty mess a flock of birds make. I have no axe to grind with Mr. Haggard, but I do wonder at the sanity or actually the lack thereof by those millions of whom Barnum gently called suckers, (no pun intended) who line up and sign on the dotted line to produce even more mobs along the same practical biblical bankruptcy.

I allude to the current state if idiocy of calling mobs churches in the hope that I and more clergy will get back to the premise that Christ is building His church and neither I nor anyone else has the right to substitute our methods/ideas as to how it is done.

I talked with a man whom I was interested in as he has come a long was in his life on the surface. In private conversation he told me that though he appears to have it together, his prayer life is little more than mouthing the words. As to meditating on the words and thoughts of scripture he had no idea of what I meant. To be fair, most moderns do not. Our life is mostly getting the newest book on the subject, if it is written by an approved author and speed reading it and on to the next book or DVD by someone whose real claim to spiritual fame is the making of DVD's or writing another help booklet. (I write them too.)

As to the spiritual progress of American Christians, we still spend more money on dog food than we do on mission projects.

I have no idea as to the spiritual leanings of the late Sidney J. Harris, but he said something that really caught my attention and further inspired me to take stock of my spiritual development, (you're right, this did not take long) and I hope you at least consider the weight of his insight personally.

"The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress."

Now there’s a vignette to hang your hat on.

As long as you settle for the facade, it is unlikely that true substance will result.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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