This post has importance to all Christian churches across the globe. Can your church be on fire for Jesus? The answer may not be as simple as you think. Recently, a good friend of mine shared a conversation he had with his 12-year-old daughter about the spiritual temperature of their church.
A transcript is provided below. The names have been changed for anonymity purposes.
“When I (the father) asked Priscilla (his daughter) if she thought our church could be on fire for Jesus, where people are worshipping with their lives, sharing the gospel with people, people coming to Christ, being healed, being set free from the chains of the enemy…
She said, “You mean living like Peter Johnson?” (*NOTE – Peter is the most popular, effective and on-fire for Jesus member of their staff.)
Then I asked if she thought our church could become like our mission trip to Brazil where those things happen all the time. She said, ‘Not at this rate… We need to Pow! …bump it up’, as she pumped her fist.
I said, “What does that mean?”
She said, smiling, “Well, you know… We have a schedule…We hear preaching, we take notes, we go home. And we don’t ever read those notes again. It’s like ‘Okay, that was great… What’s for lunch?'”
Then she started to read her book and sip on her lemonade from Chick-Fil-A.”
The following are 10 Observations From A Girl Whose Church Is Not Always On Fire For Jesus I gleaned from this conversation:
- There are members of your staff who embody your vision and are on fire for Jesus. You should highlight, celebrate and give for them a larger platform.
- The people in your church, even children and teenagers, are watching your staff and leadership to see if they are on fire for Jesus. They want to know if they truly believe what they are saying is true.
- Children and teenagers are taking figurative and literal notes during our services. They are smart and understand life-change. There is no need to dumb down the content for them.
- The children and teenagers in your church recognize Spirit-filled living when they see it. They know who is the real deal and want to be on fire for Jesus as well.
- 12-year-olds like Priscilla are the future leaders of our church. We must be good stewards of what we are investing in them.
- Asking the children and teenagers of your church their thoughts could be very informative and beneficial.
- To help those in your church be on fire for Jesus, pastors and teachers should prioritize connecting theology and application. They should connect transaction to transformation. In other words, pastors and teachers must deliver content in such a way that truth is transferred to a person (transaction) in a way it can be lived out throughout the entire week (transformation). Make your teachings portable.
- In defense of pastors, the taking of notes presupposes something was worthy of being written down. It presupposes there was great value in what was said. Therefore, in order to be on fire for Jesus we have a responsibility to re-visit our notes and ask God to make those principles a reality in our lives.
- While the people in your church value content, they desperately also want to experience God doing something supernatural.
- Do we, the people in the congregation, truly expect God to show up and do something supernatural in our services or is it “Okay, that was great… What’s for lunch?” for us as well?
What are your thoughts on this father’s conversation with his daughter?
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