And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18)
I once heard a story about a startling exhibit in Del Mar, California. A man took a glass beaker which had a small neck, but was enlarged to about seven inches in diameter below the neck. The beaker would hold about a quart.
The demonstrator used the glass beaker as a hammer to drive a spike into a wooden plank. The glass was so well tempered that the beaker did not break.
The man then took a small steel marble or bearing the size of a pea, and holding it at the neck of the beaker, dropped it inside. When it struck the bottom the glass was shattered and the beaker was broken from within.
Have you ever thought of your church/youth group as a beaker? It may have a label on it that reads Methodist, Presbyterian, Charismatic, Baptist, Lutheran, or a hundred others. Or it may have a general tag on it that says 'community church' or 'fellowship'- but can you guess what they all have in common with the beaker mentioned in the story above?
"Is it that all churches are like glass and therefore transparent to the outside world?"
That's a great guess, and in fact I agree- we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking that the non-Christian world isn't watching us as closely as a lion waiting to pounce on his prey at the first opportunity...but that's not what I'm looking for.
"Is it that the beaker is designed to be filled in order to be useful, therefore we should pray for our church to be filled with the Spirit?"
Again, spectacular speculation, and we should definitely beg the Holy Spirit to sweep through our ministries like a level 5 tornado in Kansas...but that's still not it.
"Is it that glass needs to be cleaned, therefore we should look for some holy Windex® to clean off the fingerprints of sin?"
Oh forget it. I'll get to the point!
As you read in the verse above, Jesus promised the He would build His church, "and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." (Matthew 16:18). In other words, no outside opposition-not even hell itself- would ever be able to break down the strategy of the Savior. So just like the beaker, we may look fragile- but in the hands of the Almighty we can deliver a death blow to the 'spike' of sin on this earth.
By the same token, though, all it takes is some BB head to shatter the structure from the inside! Maybe that's why the Bible warns again and again of malcontent mischief makers that putrefy the pews. Satan doesn't have to attack from the outside to destroy a ministry; he just needs to infuse a few flibbertigibbets into God's family.
Perhaps it is time for us to encourage the marbles in our midst to move on before more damage is done.
Can you see them rolling around your building? If not, let me give you a few characteristics.
- They gossip maliciously and call it 'prayer requests' or 'sharing concerns'
- They complain more than they praise
- They go to church to 'get something out of it'
- They refuse to do 'lowly' work like fold up chairs or clean-up
- They refuse to forgive
- They can easily spot the splinter in others and miss their own personal plank (Matthew 7)
- They do not play well with others
- They go out of their way to be applauded, praised, and popularized in public places
On and on and on the list goes- but I think you should have a pretty good idea by now of the kind of folks that break the beakers. So this week, take an inventory first of yourself- then of others- and pray about how you can do your part to keep the integrity of your church as strong as God intends it to be. Walk away from gossip, confront negativity on the spot, worship in Spirit and truth, and pray for unity in your group- because God is definitely not into the game of marbles!
Questions:
- Are you a part of the glass, or rolling with the marbles?
- How can you help keep the 'beaker' strong?
- What are some of the ways you are contributing to the mission of the church?
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