9/11 Reflections and What Churches Are Doing Well

Much has been said this week regarding Florida preacher Terry Jones and his desire to burn a copy of the Quran.  What resulted was a negative reflection of American Christianity because of an ill-advised decision by a single rouge pastor.  As Rick Warren said, we are for the separation of church and hate.

What these actions did was cause me to reflect more deeply on 9/11 in general and specifically the things that American churches are actually doing very, very well.

Some of my reflections of 9/11 are:

1. People now have a much deeper sense of insecurity.
2. People are more scared.
3. People are more broken now.
4. People are searching more than ever for spiritual solutions to the issues they face each day of their lives.
5. The only way I know to reach Muslims for Christ is to love them into the Kingdom.
6. We will probably never understand the true depths of pain of those who lost someone in 9/11 suffer.

I also wanted to reflect on my experiences at church today in light of 9/11 and in contrast to Jones.  Here are my experiences on what was simply a normal but wonderful Sunday at Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, GA:

1. My entire family woke up with a high level of expectation.  We love going to church.  It is our favorite day of the week.
2. My daughter loves the age-specific ministries designed to connect with her.
3. We are inspired by the great leadership we have at our church.  For more information on our Senior Pastor Crawford Loritts, click here.
4. We have developed some great relationships and got to spend time with friends.
5. Within 10 minutes of arriving I had three people say encouraging things to me.
6. Rather than demonstrating greed, people were being generous with their financial resources.
7. I saw volunteers giving their sacrificial time to serve others.
8. To show our love for the nations, we commissioned a Spanish church to serve the Latin community in our area. 
9. I got quality teaching that properly framed the issues of life that I face.
10. Solutions were given to life’s challenges.
11. I received confidence to move forward, have a productive week, and celebrate life.
12. My wife was able to invest her time in leadership development for the next generation.
13. Today I was reminded that I can go to Jesus at anytime and ask Him anything.

I hate how Jones reflected the Christian life.  That’s unfortunate because what I experienced this, an average Sunday morning, would provide to the world the answers they are desperately searching for.

In conclusion, let’s remember all the families that lost loved ones on 9/11.  Their pain must be incomprehensible.  Let’s remember all our troops who are serving our nation.  Their sacrifice is inspirational.  And let’s remember the Muslim world and love them into a Christ-filled eternity.

Your thoughts?

For future leadership insights, please subscribe to this post or click here.