Are you a church hitch-hiker?

We seem to have a major problem in many churches today. We have church hitch-hikers and it is explained well by Kent Hughes in his book “Disciplines of a Godly Man”:

“Church attendance is infected with a malaise of condition loyalty which has produced an army of ecclesiastical hitchhikers. The hitchhiker’s thumb says, “You buy the car, pay for repairs and upkeep and insurance, fill the car with gas--and I will ride with you. But if you have an accident, you are on your own! And I will probably sue.” So it is with the credo of so many of today’s church attenders: “You go to the meetings and serve on the boards and committees, you grapple with the issues and do the work of the church and pay the bills--and I’ll come along for the ride. But if things do not suit me, I’ll criticize and complain and probably bail out--my thumb is always out for a better ride.”

Wow! So on point. Being a member of the church is not about “you”! It is about serving Jesus and others. The church is full of church hoppers and those who sit back and do nothing but come on Sunday morning. What are you doing for the Jesus at your church?????

Here is a brief picture of the church...you are an important part and if you are not doing your part you and the whole church suffers!

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where wouldthe body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

So are you a hitchhiker or a working servant? Jesus desires servants!

Matthew 24:46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

Tom