Say It Ain't So ...

One of the books I am currently reading is "Comeback Churches" by Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson. A couple of sentences I read yesterday really made an impression. I have been rolling these sentences around in my head and heart and wondered what you thought of them.

"Churches will split over preferences - without either side caring about the lost. Comeback churches have decided that the 'sin of preferences' leads to the 'sin of a dying church'."

My experience tells me these are true statements, and I wish that the first sentence was not. Churches will divide over music, over chairs versus pews, over service times, over what a pastor wears, over sound systems and projectors, and they will even divide over the color of carpet in the worship center, but in all of this division they rarely spend more than a token amount of time considering those who are lost without Christ.

As I read the Bible, as I sense God's vision for my life and the church it seems to me that the lost should be at the front of our discussions and decisions. What comes to your mind first whenever the pastor, or leaders, at your church announcement a new ministry, new time, or new place for ministries what comes to your mind first? Is it how it will help reach more of the lost, or how it will impact you?

So, have you been guilty of the "sin of preferences" lately?