Church Gardening

I was just thinking about all the Church planting that goes on in America these days. Every time I turn around there is another Christian ministry graduate, or youth pastor leaving his or her position to start another Church. However, here in the USA you can't cross the street without seeing another Church of one of the many Christian denominations. Churches rise and fall as congregants swap out their church as often as they change the oil in their car. The other day I heard my pastor tell a joke about a man who was rescued from a desert island. When the rescuers saw his island they noticed two huts next to his own make-shift house. They asked the man what the huts were and his response was "The far hut is my church. The other hut is the church I used to go to."


The truth that lies behind that humor there is scary. People praise Martin Luther for posting his 95 thesis on the Catholic Church door and sparking the Protestant Reformation but what he did created a trend of abandoning the Church when things go bad instead of being bold enough to stick around and try to change things from the inside out. Luther's actions splintered the unity in our faith forever and created what seems like the hundred factions of Christianity we have today. Our generation of American's lacks the loyalty and dedication to persevere any religious trial yet we hopelessly maintain the spirit of progressive entrepreneurship that broke away from the UK hundreds of years ago in order to establish religious freedom. We can't shake the idea that the grass is always greener on the other side and that once WE get involved that things will be better than they have ever been. Instead, we need to swallow our pride, step up to the call of service and get behind the churches that already exist and are struggling because the current congregation is no longer entertained. There is such a waste of money that goes in the perpetual building up of new Churches that could be spent on building Churches over seas where there are people that have NEVER heard the Gospel in their lives.


My point is that instead of starting all over again with a new church plant maybe the answer is instead that by doing some basic gardening by means of pruning, clipping and watering our preexisting churches that we may finally be united under one God who called for love and unity amongst all believers above all else. Maybe then we can actually start building churches where they need to be built, like in the 10/40 window. But who knows? That's just my ecclesiastical shot in the dark.