Rev. Matt Larkin - Youth Pastor
Cell: (540) 968-3372 • E-Mail: mlarkin@lonestarac.org
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Youth Pastor's Corner:
The other day, I had an interesting conversation with a veteran pastor about some of the problems facing the church today, including the Advent Christian General Conference specifically, as that is the denomination in which we are both serving.
Anyway, the problems, and maybe more accurately, challenges facing our denomination, and really the whole of the Christian church are varied. There's all kinds of them. Various denominations are battling with various theological and moral issues (at least on some level). And in that regard, the Advent Christian General Conference is really no different.
But the biggest thing we talked about was this: we're focusing on the wrong issues!
There are indeed some very important moral and theological issues that face the church today. And when we focus on those, we're in good shape (though those can keep us from what's most important as well sometimes). On the other hand, I know in my denomination, we put a lot of emphasis on two or three doctrinal distinctives that separate us from some other mainline denominations. And in many churches I have been involved with, we spend our time duking it out over other secondary issues... like what kind of music we play, or how "we've always done it that way." Meanwhile, again, things that are far more important get pushed to the back burner. This can include some very central theological and moral issues, yes; but also something else.
There's two passages of Scripture that are at the very heart of Christianity; we often refer to them as the "Great Commission" (Matthew 28:19-20) and the "Great Commandment" (Matthew 22:37-40. The Great Commission tells us to go and make disciples. The Great Commandment tells us to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
Now, these are two passages of Scripture that are talked about a lot in church. We've all sat in Sunday School lessons, heard sermons or gone to a small group Bible study and talked about these things. But ultimately, for most Christians, these two things (which go hand in hand by the way) are not part of our lives.
I've talked a lot in this blog about the problem that so often faces Christianity is Christians concluding their walk with God the second they walk out the doors of the church; and this is a HUGE part of that. We TALK about it (in fact I talked about it in Sunday School today with my class), but we don't DO it. And it is my belief that this could be said about most churches in America, even those who look as if they're thriving.
And this is largely because of this, I think... Churches have gotten to a place where instead of doing what they've been called to do, they hire a pastor, or a staff of pastors, to do what they're called to do. Instead of pastors being called to lead the flock in discipleship, we're now calling pastors to DO the discipleship exclusively. And if the church doesn't start growing, it's obviously the pastor's fault. This allows the average parishioner have the guilt removed from them, and have someone to blame when it goes wrong.
Now this problem doesn't exclusively belong to the church congregation itself. Ultimately, it is the pastor's job to lead, and to teach what is found in Scripture, which includes these things. But, there are simply times on the other hand that the church does not have ears to hear. So no matter how charismatic the pastor is, no matter how dynamic the worship service is, and no matter how exciting the youth group is, the church stays stagnant, and does not achieve its mission.
No matter who we are though, the problem belongs to us all, every believer. We've got to find a way to make it happen. We've got to find a way, as the whole body of Christ, to bring our mission front and center. Everyone of us needs to think beyond ourselves.