the mission?

"Actions speak louder than words"....

ya know, cliches don't become cliches without some merit. and this cliche definitely has merit....

"don't do what I do, do what I say" is a close second cousin...

If you pay attention to how we (religious folks) act, you may come up with a different mission than the one we articulate with our words.

In the realm of walking the walk as well as talking the talk, we have failed miserably... and the saddest part of THAT is this: the mission is really really vitally important!

If you listen to the words of preachers and proselytes, you hear something like this (with regard to mission statement):

• we are to be seed-spreaders
• 'to seek and save the lost'
• we must preach Jesus
• to help each other here on earth to get to heaven
• we need to Unify the body
• to speak where the Bible speaks and to be silent where it is silent
• to be about restoring the 1st century church

and on and on and on it goes.

If, however, you listen to the actions of religious leaders and their followers, you may get a different message.... I fear that our actions (which, yes, always speak louder than our words, no matter how loud we shout) may betray us. yep, the casual observer may infer something more like:

• we gotta keep score (saved and lost)
• we need to correct (usually through printed or online rags)
• we must be right and prove it
• we have to do our Sunday morning ritual correctly

what if we were at least honest about our mission? what if what others heard from us was exactly what they saw from us?

how would that smell?

My guess is it would smell a lot more real. I have a hunch it would be a lot more attractive - or at least less repulsive - to those we are trying to reach.

What if we actually spent more time preaching the unifying message of Jesus Christ than picketing and blogging and slamming other religious (or non-religious, for that matter) folks?

We fall so deeply in love with being right - and proving it at all costs by any manner - that we cannot possibly be heard about the really important things.

and we are irrelevant.

and nobody is listening.

because we are the know-it-all Pharisees.

remember them?

read the 4 gospel accounts of Jesus' dealing with these religious leaders (Matthew 23 is my personal favorite) ...and then honestly compare them to your religious group.

If we are not too scared to honestly compare us - religious people of today - to them (yeah, the group which He routinely blasted and challenged), I believe we (you, me) will earnestly repent and set about to try to act out our words...

because, let's face it: until your stated mission is supported by your overt actions, your mission is worthless.

God Bless us as we dwell in the center of His will, and truly live out His mission in our lives.