The young people at Shively Christian Church, led at the time by Youth Pastor Dave Stone, were fiercely competitive with their neighbor, Shively Baptist, in all things, especially softball. They were also serious about their Christianity, faithfully attending the summer Bible camp led by the youth pastor. One week, the Bible lesson was about Jesus washing his disciples' feet, from John 13. To make the servanthood lesson stick, Pastor Stone divided the kids into groups and told them to go out and find a practical way to be servants."I want you to be Jesus in the city for the next two hours," he said. "If Jesus were here, what would he do? Figure out how he would help people." Two hours later the kids reconvened in Pastor Stone's living room to report what they had done.One group had done two hours of yard work for an elderly man. Another group bought ice cream treats and delivered them to several widows in the church. A third group visited a church member in the hospital and gave him a card. Another group went to a nursing home and sang Christmas carols — yes, carols in the middle of August. One elderly resident remarked that it was the warmest Christmas she could remember. But when the fifth group stood up and reported what they had done, everyone groaned. This group had made its way to none other than their arch rival, Shively Baptist, where they had asked the pastor if he knew someone who needed help. The pastor sent them to the home of an elderly woman who needed yard work done. There, for two hours, they mowed grass, raked the yard and trimmed hedges. When they were getting ready to leave, the woman called the group together and thanked them for their hard work. "I don't know how I could get along without you," she told them. "You kids at Shively Baptist are always coming to my rescue.""Shively Baptist!" interrupted Pastor Stone. "I sure hope you set her straight and told her you were from Shively Christian Church.""Why, no, we didn't," the kids said. "We didn't think it mattered."- Charles W. Colson
I stumbled across this little story and was quickly convicted & challenged by the simple truth that is in there. I think there are too many times where we seek to glorify the church fellowship we attend rather than the Lord. We don't make a conscience decision to do so, but we still do it. We either do it by trying to make our church look cooler/better/etc. than another church (thus competing with the Body of Christ) or like something similar to this story's point.
Here is a simple test (and activity) to see where our hearts are in this matter as well as a way to impact those around us, giving glory only to Jesus. It is an activity called "Ding Dong Ditch" I had learned about from a youth pastor from a church in New Mexico. Basically each person brings $1 to $5 and all the money is pooled together to go buy groceries for a needy family. Then those groceries are placed on the porch/by the front door of the home. The doorbell is then rung and everyone runs away and hides and watches from a distance the needy person receive the goods. Those who donated learn to give without receiving anything (even "thank you") in return. The other catch is you are not allowed to place any material with your church's name on it with the groceries (so if your tracks have the church's name, then type a letter explaining the gospel message and the reason for doing this, but don't sign it). Now if your heart (like mine is sometimes) is thinking "but we need to make sure they know it is from our church!" then you are seeking to glorify your church and not simply the Lord.
Let's get back to making sure Jesus gets all the glory and not our cool praise band, our casual dress policy, or our great programs that makes our church stand out better than your church. Jesus is the focus - not us!
