Things Aren’t Always What They Appear To Be…

The waitress turned my cup over, preparing to pour coffee into it.  Accidentally, she put her hand inside the cup.  “Oh, you don’t want to drink out of that, let me get you a fresh cup.”  She reached across to the table next to ours and took a coffee cup from it.  She set the cup into which she had put her hand it its place.  I had a clean cup (I hope) but sitting on the table next to me, upside down on a place mat was the cup into which she had placed her hand.  The next customer would drink out of it.

Proverbs 23:7 indicates that generous provisions and nice words sometimes hide an evil heart.  What we appear to be is not what we are.  Matthew Henry said what we are inside, is what we are. The implications for churches are immense.

It means that what you put on your church sign has nothing to do with the kind of church you have.  What happens in your church business meeting is the surest sign of the internal state of the church. 

 Do you make decisions based on your budget?  Or your baptistery?

Do you assign people to leadership positions based on their tenure or based on their development as Christians and church members?

Do you rejoice that there is no conflict?  Or that Sunday School attendance is up?

Is there a plan for growth that guides your decision making?  Or does the lack of a plan force decisions upon you?

Do you rejoice that business meetings take only a few minutes? Or that you have to explain things to a growing group of new believers who are learning how church actually works?

When the clerk reports do you rejoice that only a few have died or “lettered out?”  Or do you celebrate that folks have been baptized and have “lettered in?”

“As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” (Proverbs 23:7)  As a church makes decisions in its business meeting, so it is.  The pulpit ministry, VBS, Sunday School, visitation all flow from those decisions that a few church members make.  This is not bad, and it reflects what your church really is.

Need help with conducting your business meetings?  eturner@absc.org This blog is posted every Friday.

 

Emil Turner serves as executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons and two grandsons. Turner enjoys fishing and hunting in his spare time.