A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going.
After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire.
Guessing the reason for his pastor's visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited. The pastor made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs.
After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet fascination.
As the one lone ember's flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and "dead as a doornail."
Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting.
Just before the pastor was ready to leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.
As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday."
This is a perfect illustration. When someone (or family) begins to isolate and withdraw from the church, much like this piece of coal, they begin to lose their fire, their glow and ferver. Why? Because they have become removed from their source of refilling and energy.
This person and countless others think it is awful that a pastor would say something like that to a person. They all say the same things... You can't judge me! I don't need to go to church to serve God! Funny... the only people who ever say those things are those who have removed themselves and they know in their heart they are not where they belong but it's always a whole lot easier to point fingers and blame someone else. The outcome? They leave the church... just as I'd warned 6 months prior. Go figure. But of course, the pow-wow begins with others saying "I left the church for the same reason! He's too judgemental. He wants to tell others how to live" and so on. Guess what? THAT is the pastor's job! He is the shepherd. He tends to the flock. When he sees one wandering, he goes and gets it. If it continues to run away, he will break it's leg, if necessary, to keep it from running off and getting hurt. Well, we cannot break legs, but the point is that we are to do what is necessary to cause the wandering sheep to stop... before it's too late.
No comments:
Post a Comment