Last night, I had dinner with a man named Rich Little (he spoke at NCU's chapel on Friday, and is preaching at my church tomorrow, and he's staying with the Coburns). Something he said struck me, and I thought it was worth sharing. This may not be exactly what he said, but it's what I took away from it, and is rephrased a bit (because I can't remember exactly what he said word for word)
He said that one of the problems with churches, is that people go there with empty buckets and expect them to be filled. This leads to the congregation leaving feeling empty more often than not. Instead of showing up with empty buckets, the congregation should be in fellowship throughout the week. This way, we have our buckets filled a little bit at a time day after day. When our buckets are filled by Sunday morning, we are able to fill other's buckets while fellowshipping before and after the service. As my roommate pointed out when I told her about this, not everyone will show up on Sunday morning with already filled buckets. People have bad weeks, dry spells in their lives where they don't feel God's presence like they used to, and go through hard times. This is even more of a reason to come with a full bucket when you're not in these situations. It gives you more of a chance to pour out into other people's lives.
I was moved by this, because I realized how often I DON'T show up to church with a full bucket. It's something I am going to work on. I challenge you to think about this as well. Maybe if we all thought like this, churches would be healthier and congregations would be more loving with one another.
God Bless you guys!
I hope you all enjoy your Sunday morning worship services tomorrow morning!
