Jesus Diaries - Making An Open Door

the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things— and the things that are not— to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God— that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” I Corinthians 1:27-30

ILLUS: It’s almost amusing sometimes to read the back pages of one of our church periodicals. There are want ads back there – churches wanting preachers and pews and all types of things. And once in a while you’ll run across an ad like this:

“Church of 50 people desires hard working, Bible based preacher that is highly motivated to make a church grow…”

With all due respect to the churches that put want ads like that in there their words betray a unfortunate attitude. What they are saying is – we’ll grow if we have the “right preacher.”
The “right preacher” will simply pull the people in by
§ his friendliness
§ by his faithfulness to the word
§ by his prayer life
§ by his commitment to the church

The preacher becomes the “magic bullet” that will turn that church into a dynamic force, that will open doors for that congregation right and left…

But it never seems to turn out that way. All the great hopes of success eventually lay in the dust at their feet, and they seek to find another magic bullet to solve their problems. Why does it happen that way? Because they put their faith in the wrong things

God rebuked His people Israel by saying: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD.” Isaiah 31:1

That’s the same shameful attitude that undermines countless churches across our nation. Their eyes aren’t on the Holy One of Israel, but rather on the Mighty Boy from Bible College.

I’d be more impressed by a church who’d put in a want ad like this:

“Church of 50 people looking for a Biblical sound preacher who won’t get in the way. A man who will encourage us in our prayer life, who will teach us how to witness. We want a man who will preach good sermons from the pulpit but who won’t feel it’s his personal responsibility to do everything else in the church. We want a preacher who will help us be ministers for our God.”

That’s the kind of church that will impress Jesus, because that’s the kind of church that asks their Savior: “where do you want the door?” “You open it up Jesus and we’ll walk right on thru.”

ILLUS: A friend of mine was telling me about a church he remembered seeing when he was a boy. It was a small country church out in the middle of no where. Not particularly impressive except that on the two wooden doors at the front of the building, someone had screwed into the doors two large metal plates that had large metal bars welded onto them. These bars were shaped in the form of handles through which a person had run a log chain and secured it all with a padlock. That alone would have been enough for my friend to have remembered the building. But what really got his attention was the church sign which read “The Open Door Baptist Church.”

That was a church that didn’t want to have an open door, even though that’s what their name