I was recently asked the question, "What is it that your church needs more than anything else?" I think it was a question that the asker thought could be answered in some financial way...you know, "We really need a new projector...or some tables for the children's area...or to have the AC repaired." I'm pretty sure what they had in mind had more to do with the facilities where we meet. But of course that's not the church. The church is this one body, with one purpose...one vision of valuing the Creator...Oh, if we were to do that.
I simply cannot put into words how my heart aches to walk into a worship service one morning and begin with a prayer that can't even be heard because the simultaneous prayers of the saints in the room prevent audible comprehension... the cries of souls so desperate to be close to Him...to be heard by Him...to hear from Him that they cannot contain their humble petitions. I want to open my mouth to sing a song, and be harmoniously connected to others singing at the top of their lungs...echoing a chorus of faith that's so bold, it shakes the walls of a facility with an AC in disrepair...or lights that don't work right...or a projector with a broken lamp.
What our church needs has nothing to do with resources that provide a few creature comforts so that we can sit back and soak in a "sermon" that has little chance to have any lasting impact on the daily lives of those whose busyness has become their business, and things that don't really matter...really matter. No...we need the same thing that every other church needs. We need to glimpse the Savior...to fall in love with His Word to us...to honestly believe that He IS the Way, the Truth, the Life. That a life lived without Him is a tragedy of a fearful sort... and that lives like that are being lived all around us...in our own neighborhood...on our own street...at our own address. I realize the person who asked the question probably wasn't looking for that kind of answer. But I pray for it...I long for it...I need it...more than anything else.