My friend Syndal is writing a paper on the losing economics of today's American Church. I read what she posted to Facebook and at the bottom of her post, this is what she had written...


“The purpose of the church is to mobilize a people to accomplish a mission. Yet we seem to have turned the church as troop carrier into the church as luxury liner. We seem to have organized ourselves, not to engage in battle for the souls of peoples around the world, but to indulge ourselves in the peaceful comforts of the world. This makes me wonder what would happen if we looked squarely in the face of a world with 4.5 billion people going to hell and twenty-six thousand children dying every day of starvation and preventable diseases, and we decided it was time to move this ship into battle instead of sitting on the pool deck while we wait for the staff to serve us more hors d’oeuvre.” (Platt, 2010, p. 170-171).


...And it has struck a cord with me. And I agreed. I recall first going into a particular church in an area I lived for about a year of my life and not being welcomed in. Actually, out of the entire year I was there, I can say that besides the pastor and his wife, I only know one family I could consider 'well'. Isn't that sad?