Here's the other one-liner from yesterday's conversations:
Sometimes we think that the color of the carpet is more important than the people who walk on it.
This came out of my mouth within a conversation about the prevalence of "politicking" within the church. One of my buddies is in the throws of a serious round of "he-said/he-said" in his congregation and is fed up with getting placed in the middle of all the mud-slinging.
As we were talking about how to deal with antagonists in the church, we landed on the idea that when these political games are playing themselves out, the innocent bystanders are the ones who get lost in the shuffle or pushed aside.
How many times have you seen well-meaning Christians duke it out over the color of the carpet in the Narthex, rather than battle against the forces of evil for the good of the Kingdom of God? In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter if the carpet is red, green, blue, rainbow, or plaid when there are people in our community that will never set foot inside the church to hear the gospel because the church won't spend a dime proclaiming the message of grace through Jesus Christ out in the community?
As I look out on the possible landscape of my second year of ministry at University, I want to make sure that I care far more about the people who walk on the carpet than I do about the color of it. The former will advance the Kingdom of God. The latter will only advance the Kingdom of University UMC.
I don't know about you, but I want to advance God's Kingdom, not my kingdom.
Thoughts?
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