Christians are like manure…

I was working on a message that I shared with the church family on Sunday (Feb. 10th). The message was on the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast, found in Matthew 13:31-33.

One thing that hit me about these parables is the placement of the seed and the yeast. Christians need to be placed in the world where we can do some good. That reminded me of something I heard a long time ago (not sure who the author is):

“Christians are like manure. Spread them around, and they can do a lot of good. Pile them up together, and they can begin to stink.”

I comes down to this:

Are we bringing people to Jesus or taking Jesus to people?

I am coming to the place where I think we (the modern evangelical church) have got it wrong. We think we have to bring people to Jesus. Because of this, we put a lot of energy and resources into attracting people to our churches, thinking that when we bring people “to church” we are bringing them to the place where they will meet Jesus. Instead of bringing people to Jesus, we need to be bringing Jesus to the people. That is, wherever we go, we are taking Jesus with us. Our attitudes, words and actions reflect Him. People see Jesus in their own environment instead of being asked to enter a totally foreign environment (the church) so they can meet Him there.