For the Sake of the Cause

  An interesting aspect of human nature is the desire to be competitive.  I for one am not extremely competitive, but I must admit that sometimes competition seems unavoidably present.  Christianity is one of those areas where competition is present, though not necessarily talked about.  The desire to compete is not bad in and of itself, but when it is turned in the wrong direction it can be very damaging.  For example, when 1st Church is competing for numbers with 2nd church, and as a result splits and becomes 3rd church…we have a problem.  The problem runs much deeper still.  I have just recently become involved in collegiate ministry at my church, and have found the pressure to produce very large.  Success is the name of the game, and what gauges success properly but growth?  So here I am feeling this pressure to appeal to the masses so that I might be successful and receive acclaim, and all the while I find myself asking, “What the heck am I doing?”  When did it really become about the numbers?  Rob Bell speaks about starting a church in his book “Velvet Elvis.”  He said that he knew it was time to go ahead and start it when he no longer cared if people came or not.  As I have been trying to acclimate into this position, I am slowly coming to a very difficult conclusion.  If I am going to do this, it has to be about the cause.  You see, if I focus on numbers, then what I am really doing is making it about me.  If I focus on the cause (living out Christ), then there is freedom for God to move.  As this began to occur, something strange happened.  I realized that all that pressure I was under…it all originated in me.

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