I woke up on Sunday incredibly excited about the days events. Mission breakfast at 9:15am. Worship at 10:30am. I was ready to go. I got up at 5:30am to put the final touches on my sermon and to pray. I was excited to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. I was excited to go to church.

My Father-in-law, two of my kids, and I got in the car and headed out. We made a quick stop at Starbucks for a Grande Christmas blend and a couple of hot chocolates. Everything was working out just how I imagined it would. Sipping on Christmas in a cup on my way to celebrate the Christ that came in a manger. Perfect.

As we made our way down the road, my picture of a picture perfect Sunday faded quickly. It had just started raining a few minutes earlier creating some icy roads. We began to see cars in ditches and wrapped around trees all over the place. There were stranded motorists on their cell phones calling for help. We drove by with our windows rolled down asking each person if they needed help secretly hoping they would say they were fine. Because we were on our way to church and that was important.

We drove a little further and approached a hill. At the bottom of the hill we saw an overturned car with a man walking away limping from it. He said he was fine and help was on the way. We continued on and watched in panic as car after car crested the top of the hill unaware of what they were about to face. Each car began their unplanned and out of control decent down the icy road that would end up in some sort of collision. We watched as if in slow motion an SUV begin to lose control, climb an embankment and crash head on into a tree. At that moment nothing else mattered. Someone needed us. The mission breakfast seemed unimportant. Unloading the trailer and setting up the church didn’t cross my mind. Preaching the sermon that I’d spent hours crafting seemed meaningless. The only thing that mattered was the people in that car. We pulled off the road and ran to the scene of the accident. Thankfully the woman and her two little girls were all ok. She recognized me as she had visited our church a couple of times, which I think comforted her to know that the person helping her was not a axe murderer or something. We didn’t do much other than give them a dry place to wait until the road was reopened. Then we drove them home.

After dropping off this family my 4 year old said, “Dad, are we going to church now?” To which I responded, “honey, we just did church. What we just did, in helping that family was church today.”

I tell this story not to make myself out to be some hero that swooped in to save the day. I wasn’t the hero. I was the student. God reminded me of something valuable. I re-learned that while going to church is a good thing that obviously we need to do, it’s not nearly as important as being the church. I never want to go to church at the expense of being the church. I never want to serve in a scheduled ministry at the expense of a God-directed appointment. I never want to be so focused on the good things that I miss out on the greater things. Instead I want to be ready at a moment’s notice to be the church. I want to carry out my day to day life with an asterisk(*) beside my to do list that reads…

*This To Do List is subject to change with or without notice

What recent event in your life triggered a re-learning experience for you? Please share it.

We want our guests to feel welcome don’t we? We understand how important first impressions are. So we launch a greeting ministry complete with “My name is…” name tags. We go after the bubbliest people that we can find and we strategically place them outside and at the front door. (If you are a smoker it’s a double bonus. You get to smoke and greet…two things you love to do at the same time.) Then, just to make sure that people feel welcome, we force you to stand up in the middle of the service and shake someone’s hand and pretend like you are happy to see them. As you are shaking their hand, you might as well say, “Hey, aren’t you the same person that I walked by and completely ignored earlier as I was in a hurry to catch up with my real friend?”

We do a pretty good job of being nice to our guests. But they aren’t looking for nice, they are looking for friendly. And friendliness cannot be achieved through a program anymore than lowering your cholesterol can be achieved by eating a Big Mac. A nice greeting program in an unfriendly church is like putting a pretty bow on a cow patty and thinking that we’re giving someone a nice gift.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if our church was so friendly that we didn’t need a greeting ministry to make guests feel welcome?

We’ve got change this! If the Church is God’s plan to bring the gospel to the World, being nice isn’t gonna cut it. We need to stop thinking that the world revolves around us and start genuinely being excited and honored that a guest would choose to step out of their comfort zone and visit our church. That’s a big deal! It should excite us to no end to think that a guest would choose to visit our church, giving us an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with them. The natural response should be authentic friendliness, not forced niceness.

How do we change this in our churches?

What can you do to help change it?

Human nature is to take the path of least resistance unless there is a compelling reason not to. The job of the Church is to engage people and give them a compelling reason to avoid the wide path of least resistance that leads to destruction and take the narrow path of most resistance that leads to eternal life.

How does the Church engage culture and give a compelling reason to take the path of most resistance?

Today our church packed over 200 bags of groceries in our “Extra Mile Grocery Giveaway”. This year was a little different than years prior. This year we didn’t have addresses of people that we knew were going through a tough time. Instead, we asked our people to prayerfully consider who they would give the groceries to. For some people, someone immediately came to their mind. Maybe someone who recently lost their job or is going through a difficult time. For others, they approached complete strangers with the groceries believing that God led them to that person.

I’ve heard the same story from several different “Creekers” today. When they approached the recipient with the groceries, they immediately shared how the groceries came at just the right time. Someone just got laid off. Others just got some bad news from the doctors and needed to see God’s love. There were tears. There was shock. There was gratitude. Here is message that came in on the church line today from a grateful recipient…

A thankful Extra Mile Grocery recipient

I’m so proud of our church for going the “extra mile” in our community today.

We often underestimate the power of small things done in Jesus’ name. Jesus somehow takes the small things and turns them into BIG things! Our job is to freely give what we have to others in His name.

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Acts 3:6

“Small things done with great love can change the World!” – Mother Theresa

I had a dream not long ago where I showed up for church in my pajamas. I had been there for quite a while before I even realized it. I had sung songs, socialized with friends that I hadn’t seen all week, even gave my offering in the basket all while I was in my pajamas. As I stood up to preach, I noticed that several people were looking at me rather funny and whispering my blunder to their neighbor. The dream worked out ok. I’m glad I was in my pajamas and not my underwear! As I’m sure the dream would’ve taken a different turn.

I got to thinking about that dream and how true it is for many people. There are many Christians that will show up for church tomorrow in their spiritual pajamas. Outwardly, they will be dressed in their finest clothes and looking well prepared on the outside. But on the inside, they will show up completely unprepared, like they just woke up, crawled out of bed, and stumbled into the church all disheveled.

I want to encourage you to come to church prepared. Here are a few thoughts on how to prepare yourself for church…

• Wake up early and spend a few minutes asking God to speak to you today.
• Confess any sin that has gotten in the way of your relationship with Him.
• Meditate on a verse that speaks of God’s greatness.
• Bring your Bible to church with you.
• Refuse to get into an argument with your spouse or kids on the way to church.
• Arrive a 10-15 minutes before the service starts, so you can quiet your heart and not be rushed.
• As you are preparing your heart, ask God to move in your heart and the hearts of the people today.
• Pray for your pastor asking God to speak through him.
• Look around…as God prompts you, pray for specific people as God leads you to.
• As the singing begins don’t just sing the songs…internalize them…focus on the words and the truth behind them.
• Be there…all of you…don’t let your mind wander off to a distant land somewhere far, far away.
• During the sermon, don’t think I wish so & so were here to hear this. Instead, think…God, how do you want to change me today to be more like you?
• After the service is over, don’t be in hurry to leave. Make sure you have heard from God. If you haven’t…it’s not that he didn’t speak, it’s that you didn’t hear.
• Do what God said to do.

Don’t go to church in your pajamas tomorrow…be prepared on the inside!

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. Ecclesiastes 5:1-2