Supply Side Jesus

This morning I woke up and had a friend send me a link to a comic from beliefnet.com. To be completely honest, I was put off when I saw the article was written by Al Franken, a political liberal. The only time I liked Franken was when he played that guy on SNL with the light blue sweater. But that aside, I found that as I read this comic, the more I found myself allying along side with what he was trying to get across.

Take a moment and read the comic here.

Regardless of Franken's political stance or religious belief, his satire proves an extremely valuable point. What do you think?

Lately I've heard a lot of the term "successful ministry".

Interesting term.

What does that mean?

Depends who you ask actually. Some would define it as 'you have so many bodies on average in a room at a particular time'. Others would say 'did they have fun?' or 'were they entertained'? We live in a time where success is measured by immediate results or physical aesthetics. In church, I have seen more often then not that success is measured in how large your group is...how many church buildings you have. It is often denied...but ministers...leaders...elders...teachers are filled with pride over their large buildings. The buildings become almost like objects of worship. The size of our congregations become the litmus test for success.

I'm pretty happy that we don't have roadblocks like big expensive buildings here at RCC. Big buildings are nice...and they certainly have their purpose, but I think they often get in the way. They put us into the mindset that we (collectively us as the local church) are more important and we need to take care of our WANTS first.

But buildings wasn't the purpose of this post.

It's about ministry.

Successful ministry...

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27

Physical needs are met. Spiritual needs are met. God is glorified.

Wordly success vs. Godly success