Rev. Mike Slaughter was known throughout his writing and ministry for several profound phrases that caught people's hearts, minds, and attention. Perhaps one of my favorites was when he proclaimed, “I don’t want to play at being church”.
What did he mean by that? For me, when I look around and we make church about simply showing up on Sunday morning so that other people can see us or so we can check it off of our spiritual to-do lists, but fail to listen to God Monday - Saturday - we are playing church. Or if we will sit and listen to a sermon, but we won't serve God - we are playing church. Or if we hem and haw about new ministries to reach new people, but we won't take any action - we are playing church.
The truth is, we don't have time to play church. We don't have time to just be Sunday Christians or not seek out the will and call of God in our lives because the world is at stake. I serve churches in three zip codes where 70-80% of folks do not affiliate with any religion. That number is huge. The harvest is waiting. But when we play church, it just continues to sit there.
What would it look like if we sought out the call of God in our lives and in the lives of our churches? What would happen if we stopped playing church? How could this world be transformed for the Kingdom of God?
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