The Rest is Still to Come

Why do churches always seem to want to rest. They rest in their creativity, they rest in their outreach, they rest in their desire to reach others. Most Churches profess the desire for new members and a joy at seeing new faces, yet they do nothing to engage or to invite or to welcome these new faces. And so the new faces either become old faces, names still unknown, or they become new faces at some other church where maybe they will make a connection.
It seems that our churches have been resting on our laurels for far too long, like the tortoise and the hare. In this grand culture of America, we ran out ahead, had quite a jump while the tortoise of secularism slowly plodded along, never worried, just plodding. The Church got out so far ahead they just began resting, assuming everyone would be a part, everyone would want to be a part. Our hubris created avenues of avarice, and complacenny, aloowing unspeakable things to occur unchecked, all the while still believing the culture was ours to command. Indeed the world, or at least our little corner of it was securely in the bag.
And we rested.
And now we wake up with the house on fire, with the tortoise about to cross the finish line and the whole world cheering for him, even some of us cheering for him because we know the hare has gotten what he earned.
But lets pray none of us get what we deserve.
Our rest is yet to come. Like the writer of Hebrews says, the rest in still to come, so press on in the faith for we have not yet obtained anything. God willing, one day our rest will come. But today is not that day.