Pastor Allan Taylor with Lifeway Christian Resources is a guru on Sunday School. He preached at my church this past Sunday. It was an eye opening depiction of just how important Sunday School is to the church and the believer. I want to share a few of his points that I found very inspiring:
- Sunday School is for reaching people and teaching people. What? I've never considered Sunday School as the gateway to the church. However, after listening to him, it started to make sense to me that lost people are oftentimes confused or don't understand preaching (unless the Spirit reveals it to them). The Bible is like reading a foreign language and worship might be equated to going to a concert to listen to someone you have no idea what they sing. I wouldn't attend a concert like that, would you? Let's commit to get someone to Sunday School so they can learn about Jesus.
- Are you on mission? The Great Commission to reach people for Christ. Pastor Taylor asked if we were on mission. I thought about it and wondered, Am I? Then he said, "If you don't have a phone number, email or address of someone you're trying to reach, right now, for Christ, you're out of God's will." OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! Did someone make a voodoo doll of me and start sticking my heart? It feels like it! I pray for people but how often do I call, text, message, email or even visit someone to really REACH them? Answer = not a lot.
- Births vs. Deaths. Pastor Allan shared with us God's reproductive plan for the earth and his people in Genesis. Plants and animals are to reproduce after their own kind. The trees we see today are not originals to the Garden of Eden, they have survived due to seed and the reproduction of life. Same theory is true for animals and humans. We all know what happens if death rate exceeds birth rate, extinction. Statistically, the church is burying more Christians than we are birthing. Pretty soon at the rate we're experiencing, Christians will be extinct. That, my friends, is an eye-opening, heart-wrenching statement.
The Walking Dead must have been a crazy episode this week. Everyone on Facebook was talking about it. I don't watch the show. I cannot listen to that raspy breathing sound the zombies make. I can relate to the zombies though. Everyone of us are "The Walking Dead" until we accept Jesus and our souls are born again to new life. Luke 20:38 says For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. I shutter to think the world might envision a sign like the picture above on our church doors; afraid to come inside because the people trying to grab at them and reach them are dead. The saved look much like the unsaved anymore. On the outside, we may appear alike but on the inside, one thing separates us, the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
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