Last
summer I got in touch with my feminine side and took a day trip with my wife,
Lisa, to the world's largest flea market in a little town called Canton, Texas.
That day, I watched in amazement as thousands of shopping fanatics, in triple
degree Texas heat with perspiration dripping off their noses, pushed their shopping
carts from shop to shop in hopes of finding the deal of a lifetime. It was like
sitting on the front row at an obscure Olympic competition. If you've never
been to Canton, there are truly not enough descriptive words in the English
language to paint a picture for you of what it is like.
After
two or three long hours on the quest for the ultimate flea market find, Lisa
was kind enough to say, "Honey, let's break for some lunch." Grateful
for the reprieve, I accepted her offer and we made our way to the food area,
which consisted of a group of rickety, wooden picnic tables strategically huddled
around several food stands.
Advertisement
We
bought a couple of chicken sandwiches at one of the restaurants and proceeded
to one of the tables to eat. After a few minutes, Lisa looked over my shoulder
and said, "Honey, check that out." As I turned, I noticed an employee
of the restaurant carrying a tray of samples. Normally, a restaurant would hand
out samples to potential customers. But this girl was weaving in and out of
the picnic tables handing out samples to those of us who were already stuffing
our faces with her restaurant's chicken sandwiches!
Lisa
said, "Ed, that's hilarious. I mean, all she has to do is walk about fifteen
paces, go out to all the hundreds of people who obviously haven't eaten yet
and offer the food to them. Yet, she's content to feed the already fed."
And
that's when it hit me like an all-pro NFL linebacker. I said, "Lisa, that's
it! That is the local church in a nutshell."
You
see, our problem is that we've been so content weaving in and out of the church
aisles and handing out samples to the already fed that we have missed the countless
opportunities to offer the food, the very bread of life, to a lost and dying
world.
You
might be thinking, "Ed, that's a great analogy — but how do we do
that in today's changing culture?"
I
believe the answer is found in one powerful word: creativity.
In
this article, I'm going to specifically talk about how we as pastors and church
leaders can creatively communicate the unchanging word of God in our contemporary
world of MP3 players, HD televisions, online shopping, and hybrid cars.
It's
the Weekend, Stupid
Like
any worthwhile endeavor, creative communication begins with preparation — I'm
talking about roll-up-your-sleeves, sweat-on-your-brow, grit-under-your-fingernails
type work. I believe that seventy to eighty percent of a senior pastor's schedule
should be the preparation and delivery of the weekend message. After all, if
we're going to say in the church that it's all about the weekend, then our priorities
need to reflect that reality. And our commitment to work hard to creatively
communicate biblical truth in our weekend messages will pay off with huge returns
now and forever.