like a fire

I’ve never used crack but I’ve been to church. I hear that crack is not good for you, though. The puzzling thing about crack is that it is obviously bad for you and people still are willing to do crazy things to get it and use it. There are many reasons but all point to something missing in a life that people are willing to take big risks for.

Like being thin. My wife used to work at a pharmacy that was known for having the best diet drugs. As a pharmacist, my wife struggled with the ethical use of diet pills. Was she responsible for peoples unhealthy approach to life? When she refused to sell those drugs and people stopped coming to the pharmacy, was she responsible for it’s loss of profit from the diet pill market?

How about Jesus junk? You know, all that stuff that certain retailers peddle… er, carry that is cheesy and sometimes just unbiblical. Things like a wallet with a cross on it that promise us what financial gain. That is just wrong, but even the other stuff that is just weird. Is the merchandiser responsible for making the image of Jesus cheap?

Then there is the church. According to the parable of the sower there are non-believers in the church. The bible is even clear about people in the kingdom having unhealthy desires. What should the church do about it?

1. They can be firm in their beliefs and lose people whose desires are misplaced.
2. They can confront people on those desires (and probably lose them still).
3. They can cater to those desires and give people what they want knowing that it is unhealthy.

In youth ministry, that can mean many things. My friend Grant has some ideas about it that are very revealing. Certainly there are kids who come for no other reason than to have fun with their friends. There are even kids there who don’t want to be there at all, though that number is dwindling because parents don’t send kids to church the way they used to. There are some though who actually come to grow in the kingdom. Add to that the parents desires for their teens which range from baby-sitting, to keeping them from getting in trouble somewhere else, to giving them an education that they won’t give their teens, to partnering with them in developing mature Christians. The leaders in the church have their own desires, as well, like creating a safe environment and filling the pews. Are all of these healthy? Not usually. So what is a guy to do?

I had a great teacher once who coached me in my first youth ministry speaking experiences. It was great advice then and is still now.

For the three types of people who come; those that don’t want to, those that do for the wrong reasons, and those that come for the right reasons; you should be prepared to serve and give to each. I think this is the dilemma facing the church. How do you scatter the seed an let God sort it out without following your own agenda? The results are really up to God and not how we scatter the seed.