Afraid

I picked up a book about writing. This is the product of an exercise from the first chapter. Write about the word "Afraid."

As people, we fear many things. We fear pain and loss. But, we only fear for those things we care about. We fear for our lives. We fear the loss of our loved ones and our prized possessions. We fear failure.

We only fear for those things we care for. But, if we care for nothing, then we will have no fear. Our God commands us with these words though: Fear Not. He also commands us to love. Deeply and passionately. What we love, we should fear to lose.

How, then, can we love and still have no fear? "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." What can we lose? Everything. What is eternal? God.

If you live your life with God, you have nothing to fear. If you live without God, you live in perpetual fear.

‘Mystery worshipper’ scheme could go nationwide

Well now, all I can say is "Its about time."

At first I was offended at the idea of a "mystery worshiper." Of course, I assumed it was some humanist/atheist/government group sending in the "mystery worshiper" in order to discredit that church, or the Church, as a whole.

Instead, it was a church organization who wanted to check on its friendliness and accessibility to the unchurched. They hired an unchurched person and sent them in to grade the church. They looked at warmth of welcome, length of sermon and style of music, among other aspects of the church service. They also looked at eye-contact and help with directions.

I was in a leadership training conference, and the speaker said, as a pastor, he hired local business men to come to his church and evaluate it, as a business man. $20 bought him professional advice. They mentioned things like light bulbs not matching, tears in the carpet which could be a tripping hazard, and bathroom cleanliness. When people go shopping, they have certain expectations. When people come to church, their expectations are often higher, since the Church represents God, and business are only looking out for themselves.

Just thinking about my church raises several questions in my mind. In my particular Sunday School class, their is a box of 'junk' sitting on a dresser in the corner. The dresser is used for storage, and the box of 'junk' is just ... a box of junk, as far as I can tell. As the Sunday School director, I need to look at all the rooms and see what we have, and what they need. The teachers can't be relied on in this area. Not because they are incompetent, but because they are inured to what is around them. I often don't see the mess at home because I'm used to it being there. The teachers, and everyone else in every church around the country, doesn't see what isn't there, because we're used to working around what we don't have.

Hopefully this "mystery worshiper" concept will catch on and we'll be able to improve our churches.

By the way, the churches had an average rating of 85%, with five scoring a perfect 100%. We're doing something right.‘Mystery worshipper’ scheme could go nationwide