April 29, 2010

Church Critic vs. Church Contributor

"Here's what I don't like about our church."
I see this in the church community all too often. People with their litany of things "the church" is doing wrong, and their laundry list of things that it should be doing instead. I wonder if government has screwed up our sense of personal responsibility. We think "our vote" is the full extent of our duty. If I give you my idea/show up/tithe, that's good enough.
But we forget the church is simply us. Hillary Clinton said it well a couple of years ago, "I have a lot of good ideas. We simply can't afford them all." Commentators jumped on her for that, but it's absolutely true. Especially in a church scenario where you can't mandate money from people through taxation. The church doesn't need more good ideas. They need more people passionate about seeing a few of them through.
If you're passionate enough about an idea to personally commit to it, then stay passionate about it, persuade others to help you, and start doing it. If you're not passionate enough to work toward it yourself, drop it. There's enough critics out there. Either start contributing or shut up.
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