Musings on Spiritual Matters

Most congregations of the churches of Christ are filled with great Christian people.  These are people who love the Lord and serve one another.  But sometimes these congregations become comfortable and begin to coast.  There are too many coasting congregations.  These are congregations that go through the regular motions, are unwilling to make changes, are content with what they have and where they are, and are not evangelistic.  Congregations that coast feel good about themselves.  There is little conflict because there is little that is different.  People feel loved and people feel loving because relationships are never tested in conflict.  The problem with coasting is that it happens in only one direction.  Congregations seem to be going a long nicely, but really are coasting downhill.  Coasting is comfortable.  There is little work, just navigating the normal.  A congregation feels that it is moving a long but it is surely dying in the process.  This is because the opposite of coasting is going up hill.  This takes a lot of work and time.  People do not always like going up hill.  It is just plain hard work.  You have to be dedicated and desire to travel up hill.  This is why some congregations prefer to coast.  The church believes they are moving ahead but are coasting the whole time down hill.

Related posts:

1. Nostalgia–The Devil’s Direction
2. Direction of Fellowship
3. Creating Urgency
4. Review of “I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church”
5. Emotional Cut Off and Churches

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 11:23 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.