It is no secret that this summer has been busy in the the life of the church and in all of our personal lives. In the life of our church there have been countless vacations, mission trips, youth camp, children camp, Vacation Bible School, and many events such as water park trips, swim parties, beginning of the summer/end of the summer parties, July Fourth Parties, and trips to the drive-in movie theatre. It has been a busy summer in the life of our church. I’m sure just as it has been for me, each of us have a story about vacations, trips, and even summer school that we can talk about how busy this summer has been.
However life doesn’t just slow down from being busy because the the summer ends does it? In many cases it gets busier, maybe just a bit more structured, abiding to a schedule that we become accustomed to. Life in the church can be the same way, we become accustomed to a schedule of the week that we perceive as normal, even though we are still by definition busy: Sunday School, Worship, PM Worship, Bible Study, Sunday School Planning, Choir Rehearsal, Deacon/Finance/Personnel/Outreach/Leadership Meetings. Life after summer can be busy too.
We are all busy, I think for many of us, busyness equates comfortableness. However, let’s not become so busy with the work of the church that we forget to do the work of the church. More important than any meeting, any choir rehearsal, or any fellowship function, is the work of the church in its obedience to follow Christ. To be fully obedient to the call of submission to “follow” Jesus, we must be bold about sharing our faith with others as commanded by the Great Commission. So often people use excuses about not feeling “led” to do so, or not feeling comfortable, or even not knowing the words to say. Christ has commanded us to share the Gospel, it it is the greatest act of love that we can show anyone, therefore these excuses that are given to us by Satan are simply deterrents that are not valid. If you are a believer the best witnessing tool you have is your story of how your life has been changed by the Gospel.
The fact is, we will all be busy regardless of the time of the year. In the life of the church we have two choices in how we are busy: we can be busy for busyness sake, or we can be busy with focus. Let’s be intentional in our busyness for the sake of sharing the Gospel.
