While I appreciate a strong coffee and free wifi Glenn Reynolds makes an interesting point about megachurches.

MEGACHURCHES WITHOUT GOD: This should prove an interesting sociological experiment, if nothing else.

We’re already part-way there. My daughter took one of her karate belt-tests at a megachurch whose denomination was indiscernible — even its Christian nature appeared only thinly, as the cross in the sanctuary was inconspicuous and the only one present. But it had a cafe with free wi-fi, and extended child care.

In the consumer oriented culture in which we live, church shopping is all too common. All churches have to live with this problem. Families come and may stay for a year or two but then move on to another church in the community. The people in the church left behind are left wondering what they did wrong–could they have done something to cause these families to leave–could they have done something to prevent it?

Do we really have good reason to leave the church we’re in? Wayne Mack shares a letter written to a friend he’s encouraging to rethink his reason for looking for a different church. He notes a couple of reasons for leaving your church. One being that you find yourselves in a church that is no longer faithfully teaching God’s Word. The other reason being that you believe God would have you be of service to another church that needs your help with something no one else is doing there–and the church you are leaving can fill your role from within. Otherwise, leaving your church is harmful to yourselves, your family and the church you are leaving.

This applies equally to pastors–we pastors don’t help the church by being quick to move on when things are tough. If you are thinking of leaving your church or know someone who is, read Wayne’s piece.

It’s been a long week. It’s Saturday night. I just finished studying for tomorrow’s services. I’d usually like to be ready before now but an eye problem took me to the doctor today, then I couldn’t get the van started, someone called and wanted to see the truck we’re selling, we had a little birthday party for Zack tonight, then… well you get the idea.

It’s times like this I remind myself why I do this–I love to preach God’s Word–I love being a part of God’s work in preaching His Word to His people. And then there are guys like Al Mohler who shoot straight about what the church really needs that give a good shot in the arm too.

From Al Mohler’s blog…

“Preaching is so important that the preacher must be willing to suffer to advance the proclamation of the Gospel, he said.”Every single Christian pastor ought to be ready and willing at a second’s notice to say, ‘I can put up with virtually anything if I get to preach,’” Mohler said, adding that preachers should rejoice in sufferings when they open the door for preaching opportunities.One difficulty of preaching is that frequently it produces no visible response in the congregation, he said. But preachers should not become frustrated at a lack of visible response because the Word of God often works silently in people’s hearts in ways that are undetectable to the eye, Mohler noted.”The Word of God goes in and does surgery that the hearer does not even immediately recognize is taking place,” he said. “It’s in the mystery of the preaching of the Word of God, accompanied by the Spirit, that the believer is conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in the silent, invisible surgery of the soul.”If you want quick results, you’ll be tempted to do something other than preaching. If you want instant gratification, you’ll look at some other form of programming or you’ll get excited about some other dimension of ministry at the expense of preaching. But if you want to build Christ’s church and if you want to see Christ’s people conformed to His image, preaching is the indispensable mark of the church.”

Now that’s encouraging.