Keep or Seek

Through the course of this week’s studies a phrase have been rattling around my mind.

The phrase came from a sermon delivered by Andy Stanley. He believed that the most important question a church could ask was if it would be a church that works to “keep people or reach people.” I suppose the simplicity of the question, and it’s profound implication, is what caught my attention.

Naturally I began to think of how the actions of those around me at FCC have answered Stanley’s question. FCC is a church that desires to reach people for Christ but it is unwilling to lose anyone in the process; therefore, it works to “keep” at the sacrifice of “reaching”.

The more I thought about this the more I saw the hypocrisy in myself. The youth ministry of FCC (under my leadership) has never been about reaching out. Ever! Its focus has been on “our kids” and what to do to get “our kids” involved in the youth program. I become discouraged when “our kids’ do not fully participate. The price we have paid has been at the expense of those kids that are there. I’ve missed many opportunity because the kids I desire to keep are not present.

God has uniquely drawn a young girl in my community to my attention. She is lost and her choices are causing her great harm. I have heard school workers, students, and people at church talk as if she is a lost cause. I have no relationship with this girl, no history, no nothing, yet my heart breaks for someone so young make such harmful decisions that will lead to a life a pain. The Spirit is calling me to take action because it appears that no one else will. I must be a seeker for Christ.

FCC is a “keeping” church but the label defines me as well. It can not be denied that the Gospels teach us that Jesus “came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). I wonder why the church (the supposed representation of everything about Him), and I (a supposed follower of him by taking on His image) has difficulty to do what was so central to God’s heart…to seek and save the lost.