IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU (38)
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Ecclesiastes 5
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It's Not About You (38)
Series: Wisdom - Suffering, Thinking, Loving, and Living Authentically
Patrick Edawards
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
Introduction
I'm sure many of you are familiar with the show ''House Hunters'' on HGTV. It's an ordinary show with an ordinary premise of couples who go to look at three different houses, debate what they like and dislike, and eventually settle on a house. Well what you just watched is a spoof of that show, satirizing the way that we often take the same approach when it comes to church. It's obviously exaggerated, but that's the brilliance of satire. It uses comedy to poke at and expose how things actually are. You see while we may not be as expressly self-involved as the people in this clip were, we all very easily can view the church as about us. We take a consumeristic mentality and apply it here, right?
Like I'm here giving my time and maybe my money and so there is a certain product I expect in return for that investment. I expect the pastor to do this; I expect the music to be like that; I expect to have the staff pay attention to me and feed me, meet my needs. I mean often I don't think we realize we're doing this, and yet this self-centered, consumeristic attitude shapes our every thought and involvement with the church.
I could give examples of ways I've seen this attitude here in our church and in other churches, but maybe the broadest example I can give comes from a number of years ago when I was involved with a church going through a study called 'The Purpose-Driven Church.' It was a study by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church out in California and designed to help local churches understand the purpose of their church and getting aligned around that purpose. One of Warren's central mantras throughout that study that he tells church members is that ''It's not about you.'' Right? If you really want to see your church be healthy and be right in the center of God's will then you got to understand that church is ...
Series: Wisdom - Suffering, Thinking, Loving, and Living Authentically
Patrick Edawards
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
Introduction
I'm sure many of you are familiar with the show ''House Hunters'' on HGTV. It's an ordinary show with an ordinary premise of couples who go to look at three different houses, debate what they like and dislike, and eventually settle on a house. Well what you just watched is a spoof of that show, satirizing the way that we often take the same approach when it comes to church. It's obviously exaggerated, but that's the brilliance of satire. It uses comedy to poke at and expose how things actually are. You see while we may not be as expressly self-involved as the people in this clip were, we all very easily can view the church as about us. We take a consumeristic mentality and apply it here, right?
Like I'm here giving my time and maybe my money and so there is a certain product I expect in return for that investment. I expect the pastor to do this; I expect the music to be like that; I expect to have the staff pay attention to me and feed me, meet my needs. I mean often I don't think we realize we're doing this, and yet this self-centered, consumeristic attitude shapes our every thought and involvement with the church.
I could give examples of ways I've seen this attitude here in our church and in other churches, but maybe the broadest example I can give comes from a number of years ago when I was involved with a church going through a study called 'The Purpose-Driven Church.' It was a study by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church out in California and designed to help local churches understand the purpose of their church and getting aligned around that purpose. One of Warren's central mantras throughout that study that he tells church members is that ''It's not about you.'' Right? If you really want to see your church be healthy and be right in the center of God's will then you got to understand that church is ...
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