WHAT GRANDCHILDREN HAVE TAUGHT ME ABOUT CHURCH Grandparents are great! Someone said the reason why grandparents and grandchildren are so close is they share a common enemy. Could it be that grandkids are Gods reward for not killing your own kids? Maybe not, but I was afraid of my grandfather. He was a giant of a man.(I recently found his fishing license and discovered he was nearly my current exact weight and height.) He had a gruff voice and didnt seem to know how to relate to a shy little boy. He died when I was eight. Since, my cousins have told me he was a very kind and gentle man. It must be true. For most of the years of his marriage, he housed his parents, in-laws, grown children or grandchildren. In years since, I have come to see my grandfather as a type of the typical American church. They are filled with good, kind, and generous people but are viewed with suspicion. So what have I learned? 1. A church must bring up the perception of the neighborhood to reality. People dont stay away from your church because they dont like God. Most people like God. They stay away from your church because they dont like you! So there you sit, week after week, thinking, “We are good people. This is a good church. Why dont people come here?” You are right. Your church is good. You have a great doctrine. You have good people who have proven themselves faithful. God loves you. You want to help your community. Your desire is to see souls saved. What to do? 2. One church was concerned about their past problems holding them back. I told them they were a bit conceited. I said most people in this county dont even know this church exists, let alone know about its history. Thousands of books have been written telling churches how to become more known in the area. Door-to-door, advertising, making thousands of phone calls, starting a bus ministry are just a few ideas taught by the experts of the past. Nowadays, churches grow by the old-fashioned method of word of mouth. Your people must accept their responsibility of spreading the good news of your church! But first, they have to be excited about their church, excited enough to be proud and excited enough to want their friends to have what they have. Someone said evangelism is one beggar telling another where he found bread. 2. Feeling bad about my grandfather is one of the things I regret most about my childhood. But I learned much from the experience and vowed to not have my grandchildren be afraid of me. So, I attempt to let them see me smiling when I greet them. A smile melts the fear. Thus, at least for a short time, Ive earned the nickname of “My Friend Grandpa,” or “Grandpa Shaky.” Im sure I seem grumpy or starchy to a lot of church folk, but to my grandchildren, I am the person who tickles, shakes, gives piggyback rides, swings, sits on the ground under a tent, or whatever the situation calls for. Thats why churches should have greeters. Its the first impressions that tells a visitor whether they will feel welcomed or not. 3. I had driven for 200 miles on snow to one of our churches, only to find the service had been canceled. All of our other churches had canceled services to. So not wanting to miss church, I found a Baptist church to attend. I remember walking through the foyer as if it were yesterday. Going by the secretarys office, I heard her ask, “Who is that?” The tone of voice immediately told me visitors better beware. I reckon she had never become a grandparent! Another time, I had driven with my family nearly all night long. There was no air conditioning in our van and it was a terribly hot day. My wife had cleaned the kids in a gas station rest room and I stopped and purchased cereal from a grocery which we ate in the van. After arriving at the church, I suppose the kids had been shuffled off to class and it seemed like a long period that I was sitting in the sanctuary old womens class before I recognized all the men had departed to the mens class in the back of the church. I reckon they hadnt discovered the grandparent rule either. Visitors are very fragile. You only have one shot at proving yourself to them. While I dont recommend giving them a noogie, it wouldnt hurt to prove to them you feel honored they chose your church to visit that day! There is no law saying an unchurched person must come to your church. Those who visit but dont return are often labeled churchhoppers, drifters, spiritual hobos, or other uncomplimentary names. Seldom has a church turned the tables and asked themselves, Why should anyone come to our church? Why should they come to your church? Sure, you believe they should, but why should anyone pass up a hundred other churches in your town to get to yours? They shouldnt, unless you have earned the right to their attendance by earning their trust! 3. Sometimes, grandkids are like cats. They will give you their attention on their timetable, not yours. Visitors are the same way. It has never crossed their minds that here stands a little church on the corner which needs their help. The questions they have are more in line with, What does that church have to offer us and our children? Many churches have responded to that question with framing the entire program of the church around satisfying the wants of the unchurched. The Biblical church will consider the non-negotiables of a church such as their set of beliefs and principles which cannot be compromised. Then, and only then, will they begin to consider what the unchurched are looking for and seek to incorporate them into their program as long as they do not compromise the core principles of the church. We have no right to concede any ground which is based upon Biblical values, but every responsibility to cede our traditions which may stand as a stumbling block to the lost. 4. Grandkids like their grandparents house for a reason. Grandkids sense a freedom with their grandparents they dont in their parents because their parents are principally charged with the discipline as well as love for the child. Grandkids like the treats which flow more freely. They know the emphasis is more on grace than justice at Grandmas. But they know there are limits, as well. People like to hear about grace and love. They prefer churches known more for their love than justice. Grandkids, know theyre expected to do right at Grandmas. Churches cant be expected to be as lenient as Grandma, but discipline tempered with love is the best they are expected to be. 5. Its hard to leave Grandmas house. If we are doing church right, it will be hard for people to leave the church. It is at once, an oasis, a refuge, a place to be fed, a place to play, a place to learn, and a place to grow and be equipped for a life of world living. 6. When grandchildren are visiting, the opposite works. All is right with the world when a grandchild is on your knee. The church fills good when its pews are filled with people who are hungry and growing! 7. Grandparents like to show off their grandchildren who just always seem to be the most wonderful kids in the world! Nothing makes a child as smart as having grandparents. God is proud of us when we obey Him. We become the Apple of His eye! 8. It is at Grandparents house where we make memories. When we grow away and the world flies in our face, we always long to go back to Grandmas or Grandpas. Church is a memory making place. It is where we first found peace, where God spoke to us, and where we grew and where we were loved and developed relationships with people who helped us rise to our potential. 9. It is at our grandparents feet where we learned the great lessons of life. We may have learned out to hunt, fish, milk a cow, ride a horse, plow a row, bake a pie, or mend a dress. But as my grandson was getting baptized, his testimony revealed that it was his grandmother who first told him about Jesus. Church is a learning place. That is why God said pastors must be teachers. Preaching provides the inspiration for what has been previously taught. If our grandparents home was a place of higher learning, church is the place of the highest learning. 10. Grandparents are a source of much wisdom. Their age has provided a great variety of experiences, good and bad. Wonderful celebrations and tragic losses line the membranes of their hearts. How many times has it been said, Ask Grandpa. He knows everything! Church is a warehouse of the wise, at least the learning. Its Book is the reservoir of wisdom and the church is where wisdom is dispensed. 11. Grandparents are our link to our far distant pasts. My grandparents were born two centuries back. Probably half of the veterans of the Civil War were alive when they were born! They lived through two World Wars, went to church in a horse and wagon and lived without running water, electricity, or a telephone. Church connects us with the great spiritual warriors of the past, the prayer warriors who can tell us of all those who sacrificed to keep the church going in lean times. Church is where we learn of the heroes of faith, living and death and the great heroes of the Bible who teach us of Gods faithfulness through the centuries. 12. Grandparents are symbols of grace. Although we nearly never learn of the unsaved pasts of these special people, the people we know are not often the people they were in their teens and twenties. Ages mellows and grace cleans. They have shucked their pasts many years ago and have become the people we love so dearly. And because God reached down many decades ago and saved them, He can reach down to us and lift us up to Him. 13. I spoke of my paternal grandfather but I have another who was killed a few years before I was born. Manytimes, I have wondered about what kind of man he was and how different my life would have been had he lived. Fortunately for me, mentors came into my life who served as surrogate grandfathers. There a host of people in your community who have never had a church or Christian examples to guide them. Who will show them the way? Who will love them? Who will exemplify the best of humanity to them? Unless you rise up and love and guide them, no one will! The grandest mission a person has to do is to make Christ known. Be a GRANDparent and a GRAND example! - CMH
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 06:52:58 +0000