“I’m bored!” We have all heard that complaint more often than we care to count. It is usually made in a very whiny tone. You can hear it in your head right now, can’t you? It’s one thing when it comes from a child or youth. It’s another thing altogether when it comes from an adult, or even a church.
The complaint of boredom is often accompanied by an assumption that it is someone else’s job to rectify the problem. In most cases, however, the bored person has all the resources they need to solve their own problem. Frequently, all they need to do is do what they already know they should be doing. What is true of individuals is true of the church as well. If we are bored and disillusioned with the church, it may be because we are not doing what we are supposed to do.
One of the three primary reasons the church exists is to make new disciples. When a church fails to do that, it cuts itself off from relationships with people outside of the church. There is no flow of new life, new people, or new disciples into the church body. The lack of new life leaves the church to grow introspective and self-absorbed. That never results in anything good.
If we want North River to be a dynamic church, we need to be actively and meaningfully engaged with non-Christians. We need to be making disciples. It is why we exist.
To make new disciples, though, means we must continually meet new people. We need to develop relationships with people we don’t currently know. That scares many of us, but it doesn’t have to. Even introverts can do this. I know – I’m an introvert. Extroverts, you have no excuses.
The first step is to make a mental change. We need to stop thinking of strangers as scary and potentially harmful. We need to see them as potentially the most interesting people we will ever meet. We need to think “that person could be my new best friend if I would just get to know him or her.” That little change in the way we think will do two things. First, it will make it a lot easier to introduce yourself. Second, it will help you focus more on getting to know the other person and less on how nervous you are.
We need to be actively and meaningfully engaged in building honest, caring relationships with non-Christians. We need to get to know them. We need to learn to love them. We need to develop relationships with them where we listen to what is important to them, and share with them what is important to us – which will include the gospel. If we do that, we will solve our boredom problem.
We need to be making new disciples. It’s why we exist.
