Twenty-five years ago along highway 421 both north and south of Clinton, N.C. vegetable stands sprang up each summer where local farmers sold the vegetables they had grown in their gardens. On one occasion my wife and I stopped at one of them to purchase home grown tomatoes and other things. The owner of the stand was talking with another man who had also stopped to purchase some things. It was obvious from their conversation that they were neighbors and were members of the same church.
The thrust of their conversation made it clear that their church was deeply troubled by dissention. Neither of them liked their pastor. The man who had stopped to talk to the owner, finally said, “I told them how to get rid of the preacher – get the members to stop giving their money.”
Since I was a pastor, and since I had been dealing with various church problems for nearly fifty years, it was about all that I could stand to hear. So, I said the man: “If you would like to get rid of your preacher I know a far better way to do that than the one you have suggested. Would you like to know what it is?”
“Certainly,” he replied.
“Here is how you can get rid of him,” I said, “Pray for him. Pray that God will make him successful. Get every member of your church to pray for him. Join him in finding God’s vision for your church. God will make him so successful that some other church, probably much larger than yours, will come along and take him off your hands.” At that point my wife and I got into our car and traveled on down the road.
I could almost hear him saying as we drove off, “Who was that guy?” He had given no indication that he was the least bit concerned about whether or not his church fulfilled the mission Christ had assigned it. He only wanted to get rid of his pastor. I pray that my suggestion found lodging in his heart, but I doubt it.
Churches have problems when they take their eyes off Jesus Christ and begin to focus on each other, or on other things. By focusing on the wrong things they lose sight of the main thing – which is to genuinely worship God and share the good news concerning His grace with others. Prayers become “Not thy will but mine be done!” Church members become mere spectators rather than fellow soldiers in the army of God.
The church described above was like the one where the pastor was extolling the virtues of teamwork, and he used a football team as an example. “We have in our church,” he said, “some quarterbacks, halfbacks and fullbacks. But, unfortunately, we also have some drawbacks.”
Dr. Billy Graham several years ago in one of his sermons was emphasizing the need for church members to have enthusiasm. He related the story of the time when a fire broke out in a small town church. When the fire truck arrived on the scene, siren wailing, the minister recognized one of the firemen. “Hello, there Jim” he said, “I haven’t seen you in church in a long time.”
“Well,” answered the sweating man struggling with the fire hose, “That’s because this church hasn’t been on fire in a very long time.”
How about your church? Is it on fire for the Lord? If not, why not? It certainly can be, for it is God’s will that it be on fire with enthusiasm. God stands ready to meet you and every member of your church family in worship every Sunday. It can happen, and it will happen – that is, if you adopt the attitude of the Psalmist, “I love the house where you live, O Lord, the place where your glory dwells” (Psalm 26:8 NIV).
The Postmaster in my home town in Georgia more than sixty-five years ago placed a poem on the Post Office bulletin board that I still remember. I recommend that you consider its wisdom:
Whenever I go past our church,
I stop to make a visit,
For fear that, when I’m carried in,
The Lord might say, “Who is it?”
The Paper Pulpit 
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