A Church for the Financially Rich

In my Prayer Devotional Bible are weekly highlights of prayer-filled men and women throughout history. This morning, I came across a passage that highly echoes what I've been feeling about my church lately.

E.M. Bounds, a man of prayer, writes the following:

We are constantly on a stretch, if not a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or the organization. God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God's method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men . . . What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use--men of prayer, mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men--men of prayer.

I've been attending this church for longer than I've lived in any house and I've seen it constantly evolve into something newer, bigger, and "better." Going away for school and experiencing campus Christianity has allowed me to return and see it more objectively than if I had always stayed. There have been many moments where I've wanted to pack up and leave for another church--one that embraced money less and God more; but I believe that there is still a place for me to serve and grow within this corporation. (And yes, this church is incorporated.)

This summer I have the privilege of teaching Sunday School with a dear childhood and university friend. [In fact, she was my cell group leader this past year!] We've both been taken aback by the materialism that consumes these Grade 7 girls. It's been an adventure trying to subvert their consumerist attitudes and show them how great our God is. Yesterday we tried teaching them to listen to God. We maintained a 3-minute silence, which was quite a struggle for some of them; however, I left with the hope that God is moving in their hearts and is raising up women of prayer, mighty in prayer.

There are so many ways our church can grow spiritually, and I'm excited to be back on the bandwagon: growing along with the rest of them.