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| Courtesy Clergy Coaching Network |
BY STEVE DUNN
I have been a Christian for 60 years. I am one of those who was carried into the church as a baby, and when I was eight years old, at the invitation of my Sunday School teacher, Marcile Krick, I made the choice to become a follower of Jesus.
One of the most difficult things for me to grasp is the reality that many fellow Christ-followers rationalize away the need to engage in concrete action with the expression "you are in my thoughts and prayers."
I am not belittling prayer or its power.
What I am troubled by is Christians who have time to go to worship, attend Sunday School, participate in a bake sale, and linger a long time in the coffee hour but are reluctant or even negligent in giving time and attention to a neighbor in need.
Maybe it's because our schedules are too crowded and lives filled with too many things that we embrace only that which is easy, commit only to that which is convenient. Maybe it is because we are so fearful of others or desire to have so much control that we do not want to get too close or too involved with people in the messy times in their lives.
Maybe it's because we think church activities are equal in value to Jesus' command to love our neighbors and to serve one another in love.
Maybe it's because our Bibles seem to have deleted Matthew 25 which ends with the words, "when you have done it unto the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto me (Jesus)."
Maybe it's time to stop "passing by on the other side."
I am not belittling prayer or its power.
What I am troubled by is Christians who have time to go to worship, attend Sunday School, participate in a bake sale, and linger a long time in the coffee hour but are reluctant or even negligent in giving time and attention to a neighbor in need.
Maybe it's because our schedules are too crowded and lives filled with too many things that we embrace only that which is easy, commit only to that which is convenient. Maybe it is because we are so fearful of others or desire to have so much control that we do not want to get too close or too involved with people in the messy times in their lives.
Maybe it's because we think church activities are equal in value to Jesus' command to love our neighbors and to serve one another in love.
Maybe it's because our Bibles seem to have deleted Matthew 25 which ends with the words, "when you have done it unto the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto me (Jesus)."
Maybe it's time to stop "passing by on the other side."
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