“Therefore, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.”

                                                                                    Matthew 28:19

Okay, when last we met, I was talking about “insideritis” and preachers who disrupt.

One way you can tell how adverse people are to change is when you stop making informed, educated, information-based decisions, and start making all your decisions based on emotion. And why? Because most emotional decisions are bad decisions.

You don’t have the heart to confront a problem, so you decide to ignore the problem. When that happens, you suffer, the church suffers, job duties suffer, and the problem and person involved suffers. Everyone just trudges through and nothing ever changes because doggonit you just don’t want to hurt feelings. So, you just put things on cruise control and hope the problem goes away. But it won’t. It will only get worse.

The church must never let personal emotions matter more than the mission of the church.

The major symptom of insideritis is that the church isn’t excited about the future, it is afraid of it. People stubbornly cling to the present or the past, preferring the way things are or the way things used to be over the way things could be. Innovation dies. New ideas get shot down. Any program or ministry designed to reach people outside the church is either tabled, viewed with suspicion, or dismissed altogether. (You remember the devotional – “let’s pray about it”.)

When innovation and new ideas cease, the church is on life-support.

The takeaway from all this? Simple. Open your minds and open your hearts.

-        Reaching people is more important than pleasing people.

-        Chaos and disruption can be good things.

-        Basing decisions on emotion can be a bad thing.

-        Ignoring problems is an even worse thing.

-        Don’t fear the future, embrace it and get excited about it.

Yesterday is gone, full of wonderful memories and moments and it has shaped who we are, but it is gone. Today is quickly passing. But tomorrow still holds the hope of better days.

Let’s be the church God has called us to be, and let’s cure the disease of insideritis. The prescription is to open the doors, and go into all the world, sharing God’s love and mercy and forgiveness.

Thank you, Father, for Your call to us. Give us the courage to respond with purpose and conviction as we “Co” on the Great Mission. In Jesus’ name, AMEN