And Christ will shine on you! What a promise from Ephesians 5:14! I don’t know if any denominations use this verse in their liturgies, but if not, they should! I’ve already got a tune written out on how it would be sung by the congregation every Sunday. And who knows, perhaps people would heed the words and listen to the sermon! 🙂 While the American church is largely in a comatose state, there is the magnificent exception. Those small pockets of people in our congregations who are alive and well! Ah, what a breath of fresh air! These are the people who prove that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, and that the Holy Spirit is a real gift to the church! It seems most churches, no matter how dead or decaying they may be, have one or two people like this. It’s probably the biggest reason why those churches have not yet closed their doors. These people are like God’s best-kept secret agents in His kingdom. Every church I’ve attended has had at least one of these people. I’ve often imagined…what would it look like to assemble all of these people together in worship, in evangelism, in discipleship, in fellowship…? Of course, the answer to that question is easy: it would look like the bride of Christ! Not just by name only, but in truth. Sometimes it is hard to be such a person in the midst of a comatose church. You easily become discouraged by what you see around you. Or more accurately, what you don’t see around you. You wonder, “Where is the passion for Jesus here? Why is no one else jumping in with both feet into Christ’s mission?” Discouragement turns to resentment. “Why do I give my life for Christ–for His church–for His mission, and those to whom I serve just eat it all up and want to consume more, yet they are unwilling to serve others themselves?” No, I’m not talking from personal experience, ha! The problem is, when we get into this kind of mindset, we have been derailed. Now we are feeling pride by comparing ourselves to others. Pride is not attractive. It is butt ugly. So we are no...

When a patient is in ICU, what family and friends want more than anything else is hope. With that in mind, there IS hope for the comatose church. But that hope isn’t in better models for doing church. Or improved leadership training. Or more money for hiring better-talented staff and starting up new programs/ministries. None of those things can revive what is almost dead. The only thing that can revive us isn’t a thing, but a Person. In Ezekiel 37, God shows the prophet Ezekiel a valley full of dry, dead bones and asks him if they can be made alive again. A person with no hope would say, “Nope.” An idiot, or a person who doesn’t fully understand the circumstances would say, “Sure, just give them some medicine!” But Ezekiel answers smartly, “God, only you know the answer to that question.” Truth is, outside of God doing anything, there is absolutely no hope for those bones. Can/will God do anything with those bones? Well, we can’t speak or make promises for God, but here’s what we CAN do: we can trust and obey God. The only hope for a comatose church is for its leaders to stop pretending things are better than they are, to stop denying the reality of the situation by trying this program or that program, or seeking answers from church leadership summits or growth seminars, but to also not give up hope and throw in the towel when they see the magnitude of the situation–but instead for these leaders to be willing to earnestly seek God, and then to trust God and obey Him. Because our only hope is for God to do something miraculous. And it’s very risky/scary to trust God for a miracle. We leaders want to be able to do something to fix the situation. It’s scary to place things into God’s hands and trust/hope in Him. But when your loved one is in ICU, you have no other options. Even the strongest skeptics are earnestly praying to God in that moment. God tells Ezekiel to do a bold thing: preach to the dry bones. Can you imagine following these orders? “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry...

Audra and I are watching the TV show “Falling Skies,” and it really hasn’t been too interesting to me until the most recent episode. SPOILER ALERT!!! If you don’t watch the show, it’s about an alien invasion on earth. The overlord aliens are trying to take control of our planet. They are doing this partly by harvesting children, and turning them into an alien slave race (nicknamed “Skitters” by humans) to destroy the rest of humanity. The overlords also utilize powerful mechanical robots to destroy our civilization. Basically, the situation is hopeless. But one small regiment of humans is fighting to save and rescue the children, and to take our planet back–dealing blows here and there to the aliens. From week to week, humans are fighting against the odds, and sacrificing greatly. It’s a bleak picture, with little hope at all. But the most recent episode tells about how this regiment finds a pocket of humans who have survived underground, undetected by the invading aliens. They have actually been able to adapt to underground living very well! They grow fresh produce, sleep in comfortable beds, and are even starting to form a new democracy, since the US government has been completely wiped out. To this regiment that has just arrived, it is paradise! Utopia! Unbelievable! Peace at last. Community. Kids are going to school. Adults are working to build this new way of life. It seems perfect. That is, until the regiment tries to encourage these people to not forget about all the devastation and destruction happening on the surface. Children are being removed from their families and transformed into a slave alien race. Cities are being wiped out. Suffering and devastation is everywhere. But this community has invested too much in itself to risk exposure to the aliens by joining in the fight. They want to remain under the radar and continue enjoying their new-found life. Meanwhile, out in the real world, the skies are falling. What a perfect analogy for today’s church. As the late Christian songwriter Keith Green wrote and sang, “The world is sleeping in the dark that the church just can’t fight, cuz it’s asleep in the light.” I am feeling more and more...