From Ezekiel 37....
[T]here was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. II will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
We have finally begun to realize that the church is in trouble. I’ve been yelling to anyone who would listen that the church has been declining for the last forty years. Now, within the next two decades, the church is going to lose a huge number of it’s strongest supporters because folks are old and it will be time for many of them to graduate into heaven.
Leadership is thinking about how to best organize and consolidate our resources. I know they have to think about this. It’s the wise thing to do. But we’re thinking in terms of crisis management. We’re thinking of the church as a terminally ill patient that needs to be made as comfortable as possible.
I’m still thinking renewal. I don’t believe the Lord means for the church to blink out of existence. He offers a bold vision of an army being raised from a field of dry bones.
If we believe the message of this passage, why not focus on turning this thing around?
I’m not the only one thinking this.
I plan to continue my work for the next two decades, and I don’t aim to make my final years a time to bury the bleached bones of a dead church. I’m going to work to light the place up.
What are you going to do?
[T]here was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. II will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
We have finally begun to realize that the church is in trouble. I’ve been yelling to anyone who would listen that the church has been declining for the last forty years. Now, within the next two decades, the church is going to lose a huge number of it’s strongest supporters because folks are old and it will be time for many of them to graduate into heaven.
Leadership is thinking about how to best organize and consolidate our resources. I know they have to think about this. It’s the wise thing to do. But we’re thinking in terms of crisis management. We’re thinking of the church as a terminally ill patient that needs to be made as comfortable as possible.
I’m still thinking renewal. I don’t believe the Lord means for the church to blink out of existence. He offers a bold vision of an army being raised from a field of dry bones.
If we believe the message of this passage, why not focus on turning this thing around?
I’m not the only one thinking this.
I plan to continue my work for the next two decades, and I don’t aim to make my final years a time to bury the bleached bones of a dead church. I’m going to work to light the place up.
What are you going to do?
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