Creative Scribble

When I was still in the public relations world working for Bristol Motor Speedway, I loved the last few minutes of our pre-race ceremony before the green flag dropped (and yes, NASCAR is a sport!). The electricity was amazing. 160,000 people from all over the US and several foreign countries were gathered in one spot, for one reason and the time for it to begin had finally come. Fireworks exploded with the National Anthem, flashbulbs popped when the race began, and everyone sat on the edge of their seat waiting for the first big crash. Being down in the middle of the track for those few minutes was by far the highlight of the weekend. There was nothing like it! I wish everyone could witness what I got to because even the biggest NASCAR critic would get pumped up from that experience. And there was only one thing that could convince me to leave what was at the time a “dream job” for me.

...

That was the local church.

There’s nothing like the local church when it’s firing on all eight cylinders. Some of the most fun times of my life have been seeing a church grow by reaching people who ordinarily wouldn’t give God, much less a church, a single thought. I’ve seen those farthest away from God give Him a chance and watch their lives radically change. I’ve seen grown siblings embrace for the first time in a long time as forgiveness was finally given. I’ve seen small groups (aka Bible studies) come together to buy a family a car when they were about to lose it all. I’ve seen divorced couples reconcile their marriages and restore their families. I’ve seen truly hurting people come to life as they let Christ control the pain. I’ve seen families receive the only gifts they were going to get at Christmas, eat the only food they were going to have that week, and wear the only warm clothes they had for the winter because the church sacrificed for “the least of these.” I’ve seen people have fun – at church! I’ve seen drug addicts beat the addiction and prostitutes leave what really is a lucrative business. Most of all, I’ve seen lives truly and completely turned upside down and changed for the better.

There’s nothing like it!

So when people say “We don’t need another church. There’s already enough,” it drives me to a crazy place! There are a lot of great churches in our community but yet there are still literally hundreds of thousands that these churches have been unable to reach. So do we just give up on them? Or do we take our unchanging message and try to find new ways to reach them with changing methods? I believe the answer is clear.

So when people start asking me why there needs to be “another church” in our community, my answer will be simple.

Because there’s nothing like it!