In 2015, 75% of people claimed to be Christians in the United States. It's hard to believe when 6,000 to 10,000 churches close their doors in America each year. Why? Well, what keeps the doors of a church open? Christians do. Number one, Christians need to be showing up to church. Some Christians are such fair weather attenders its hard to know if they're part of a church or not. Another problem is what they do if they show up at all. Young or old, if you are a Christian attending a church, you should be serving in some capacity. What is it you love to do? Hopefully your answer is not just sit there and watch others serve. Do you realize when you became saved the Holy Spirit gave you at least one gift? It was a gift for a special purpose; to serve God. If you're not attending church, and call yourself a Christian, find a church and start going.
So, showing up is important to keep a church alive, serving is important to keep a church alive, what else might be a problem? Do you give an offering to the Lord. That seems like a no-brainer to some Christians, but there are many Christians who don't give at all. Some people say, "that's Old Testament." The tithe (10%) was old testament. No one stopped giving in the New Testament. Even the poor widow gave everything she had. "Luke 21:1 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.3 So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”" There's an example! I'm certainly not saying put all your money in the offering, but I don't know any Christian who wouldn't admit that all we have comes from God. So our example from the widow is to give sacrificially. In my experience, however, the percentage of those serving and tithing are usually about the same. Ten percent of the people are doing ninety percent of the work. What would happen if people started showing up to church on a regular basis, began serving, and would give an offering on a regular basis? Less churches would close their doors, and in turn, we could enlarge the kingdom of God; which is the most important goal for all of us as Christians. If you are a Christian in need of a church we would love to have you. You don't have to start serving the day you get there, and you don't have to give an offering. We'll wait a couple of days for that. :D But if you want to live the Christian life God expects of you, come see us every Saturday night at 6:00PM and we will serve the Lord together.
