The Church: Lazy or Overworked?

We will finish our series on Work where we've seen God at work, Daniel's example of work in the marketplace, and the importance of preperation this Sunday.  It will be followed by a memorial day extravagnza in the Fens by the Rose Garden.  Here's an except from Dave Csinsi's blog based on his and Jeremy's preach on work 2 weeks ago.

Read how we can avoid both these extremes at his blog:  http://blessedmorning.blogspot.com/2010/05/sundays-preach.html

LAZY CHURCH

Imagine a church where nobody works. There is no one who preaches a sermon, there’s no one who plays a song, there’s no one to set up the chairs. No one works. There’s no one who puts words on a screen with a computer and projector, because there’s no one who sets up the screen to put them on. There’s no one who goes to the printers to get communication cards, there’s no one who watches the kids, there’s no one who smiles and greets people as they come in. The only thing in this lazy church that even remotely resembles work is that everybody shows up. They all show up and what will they get? As we heard a couple weeks ago they might hear an improvised sermon from David, but what else would they get? What else would expect them to get? Nothing! Work makes things happen, obvious yes, but sometimes it’s hard to remember the purpose of work. Work is meant to create. We were made in the image of God, and he creates. We were made to create, therefore we were made to work. Whether that work creates anything tangible or not is not the point. God created the world and part of that creation involved simply separating light from darkness. Sometimes at work you may simply organize papers into categories to be placed into folders. God created the world and part of that creation was simply speaking. Sometimes your job might just be speaking, but those words create new thoughts in the minds of those who hear them. My point is, work is creation, whatever that form may be.

OVER-WORKED CHURCH

Now imagine a church where the pastor and one other person does everything. He preaches the sermon, he plays a song, he sets up the chairs, he gets all the communication cards, his friend somehow manages to simultaneously watch the kids and change the words on the projector. The pastor greets everyone that comes in, he prays for everyone before they leave, he brings in coffee, he gets donuts, he juggles not 2, not 3, but 4 cats, he sings an aria. You get the point. Thankfully, God can do anything and everything, and thankfully he understands that we can't. He can do everything and even he rested on the seventh day of his creation. So what is the balance between overwork and outright laziness? Maybe the bible can give us an idea.