It's All About The Mouse

Our family recently went on vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It was a very fun and very exhausting time (parents know what I am talking about). Disney is a massive enterprise. It has resorts and theme parks all over the world. It has movie studios, cable channels, music, merchandise, etc. When you look at all that they do from an overall perspective and then see how well that they perform, it is very impressive. So many characters and movies have been created over the years that it can be hard to identify a favorite one. My family and I like to watch the parades that they have at Disney World. In many of the parades on the main float, Mickey Mouse is the feature attraction. He was the first of many of the characters that Walt Disney created. Walt Disney was quoted as saying, "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse." Today, American Christianity has become a massive enterprise. We have mega-churches, medium-sized churches, and small churches. Like Disney, we have movies, books, music, merchandise, cable channels, radio stations, etc. I don't have a problem with any of that as long as the intent is where it should be, which is spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not naive enough to believe that is always the case, however. It doesn't matter what type of service that we have or what time that we have it. It doesn't matter if we have contemporary or traditional music. What does matter is that Jesus Christ is the star of the show. He is the reason that we show up to worship. He is the reason for our salvation. He is the one who paid the ultimate price for us. If we make it about anything other than worship and praise to our Savior, then we have it wrong. It is amazing to me to see the insignificant things that distract us from spreading the Gospel. We prefer a certain music style in our churches. We prefer a certain time to meet and the number of times to meet during the week. We prefer the worship center to look a certain way. If any of this changed. . . . .watch out! We can't function. We will start a situation in the church that can cause a lot of distractions and problems. This may sound alittle harsh, but our opinions really don't matter. Are we affective at reaching people? Are the things that we are doing reaching people for Christ? If they are not, then why are we still doing them? We won't stand before God one day and Him say to us, "You didn't reach anyone with the Gospel, but you had beautiful facilities." or "You didn't reach anyone with the Gospel, but I liked your worship schedule." We, as believers of the Way, had better never lose sight of the fact that it all started with Jesus. We had better do whatever it is we need to do to spread the Gospel, no matter how different or new to us it may be. My mom was not a Nascar fan. She never had any interest in the sport. Two weeks before she died, she was at the race track in Talladega, Alabama working with Alabama Raceway Ministries handing out water and snacks and telling people about Jesus. Earlier that year, she was helping with a church start in Nebraska and sharing the Gospel with the Lakota Indians. Why would she do things that she probably did not prefer to do? It is because the Gospel of Christ matters way more than what we prefer.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:2

Finger on the pulse. . . . . .

Todd Johnson