Just like at the last meeting, the day was divided into two main sections: a large lesson for everyone who attended, and then "breakout sessions" where everyone divided up into small groups for a more specific lesson.
Our large lesson was a Safe Sanctuaries session. Our guest speaker was a lady who had worked with Fort Knox and had many stories to tell. Some were interesting and thought-provoking, but some were just heartbreaking. Safe Sanctuaries, which, for those of you who may not know, is training for churches to follow to make sure that the church is a safe place for kids and young adults, free from harm and free from abuse. Some of the Safe Sanctuaries protocols, for example, include having windows in each classroom door and using the buddy system. Some of the newer aspects of the training include ideas for taking care of the church social media and making sure that the church is free from cyber bullying. Learning about Safe Sanctuaries really got me thinking about how blessed I am to have a church that's safe and supportive of our youth.
After the Safe Sanctuaries session, which took up most of our day, we went to our small groups, where I got to catch up with everyone I met last month. We had a new leader this month, a lady who is a member of Horsley Chapel. I was truly inspired by her story. She told us that she had been a Christian for fourteen years, but that before she became a Christian, she'd been a member of a church her entire life. She said that she'd been raised in a Catholic family and attended a Catholic church for many years, but that she was a "pew-warmer." She'd thought she had been a Christian for thirty years, but she realized she was wrong when she finally felt the Holy Spirit calling to her. She told us that she always tried to be a nice and happy person, and that sometimes she thought she might go overboard, but that she was trying to make up for lost time. She said that for fourteen years, she was the nicest person she could be, because for the thirty years before that, she was the meanest.
I was so amazed by her bravery and openness when she was telling us about her faith journey. It's not easy for anyone to admit mistakes, but she was happy to share with us her testimony, and I have so much respect for her. I can only hope to be so joyous and generous with my faith and my stories as she was.
In our group lesson, we built on last month's topic of lay people being the foundation of the church. This month, we discussed some of the responsibilities we have: bringing other people to God and holding church members accountable.
Holding church members accountable means keeping up with people in our church family. Being Christians doesn't mean we aren't all sinners, and as Christians, if we see our brothers and sisters in Christ going astray, it's our duty to help them. We have to be supportive and considerate when we guide others, and we have to give good and honest advice, but we have to make sure that we protect our church family without passing judgement on them. We also have to take care of the "pew-warmers," the people who, like our group leader, believed they were Christians but didn't understand Jesus and God's Word. We have to find ways to help them and bring them to the faith they're looking for.
We also have to hold ourselves accountable. We may not always have that "mountaintop experience." There will be days when we are searching, and when we face doubts, and when we feel our faith isn't as strong as it should be. Those are the days when we must turn to discipline and support from our church family to keep us going until we can work our way back to the top of the mountain. As one of our group members said, each of us should stay close to God the way we'd stay close to our fathers.
As lay speakers, we may not be ministers in the sense of being ordained, but we are ministers in the sense that we must bring other people to Christ. Every Christian is called to follow the Great Commission and bring more souls to God's Kingdom. Some of the problems we discussed in our group were getting people to come to church and bringing young people into church. These problems often go hand-in-hand, as parents with children often find "better things to do" on Sunday morning. Yet, as the associate pastor from Clair Memorial said, the reason that many of us attend church now is because when we were young, our parents made time to come to church. Many people make time to attend church now, and make time to bring their kids to church. If a person is really dedicated to doing something, he or she will find a way to fit it into the schedule. What we need to do is get more people to be dedicated to God. The problem with getting young people involved in church is to find activities that interest them---a task that is much easier said than done. It's good to start small, with things that don't require much commitment and effort, and then work your way up to more important and more involved events.
A key to bringing in new Christians is to be a good leader. As we discussed in our group, a good leader serves everyone, because the sinners need Christ the most. And like Christ, we have to lead by service. When Jesus was in ministry, He didn't just supervise; He got His hands dirty, and He was out in the world just like His disciples. He even washed His disciples' feet. That is a model of servant leadership.
A good leader can minister efficiently. As Christians, we will face persecution, but we shouldn't allow ourselves to be taken advantage of and we shouldn't waste our time in places where we're not wanted. We have to focus on the harvest that is ready now, because the more Christians there are, the easier things will be, and the greater the harvest we can bring in.
A good leader is also humble. Everything we have comes from God, and we aren't any holier than anyone else. To quote Matthew 6:3, "...Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." And lastly, a good leader knows how to create more good leaders. Mentoring people is good stewardship and a good way to get people involved and excited about church and about God. Even the most unlikely candidates, like Jesus' disciples, can play important roles in the church. As our group leader said, "God can make any change---and His changes are huge."
As John Wesley said, we're always striving for Christian perfection---for sanctity, for a love for God and our fellow man that is stronger than what we have now. But Christian perfection doesn't mean we're perfect or that we have to be perfect. We're all human beings, we all make mistakes, we all have doubts, we're all trying our best, and we're all working our way to the mountaintop. But in Christ, we all have the potential to be greater than what we are today, and we always need to grow in our faith and encourage others to grow as well.
I'd like to leave you with one of the Scriptures we discussed, a Scripture that describes the role of a lay speaker well:
"Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them." ------John 13: 12-17
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