Whoa, Nellie!

Wow! The Information Highway is more like a Los Angeles Interstate Parking Lot tonight! This thing is slower than molasses in January in Alaska! (Just a little West Texas humor before I get started--very little!)

What I want to begin is a short series (hah!) that will eventually focus on Vision for Ministry. But in order to get there, I need to talk about how people are involved in the Body of Christ by looking at "Levels of Involvement."

A number of years ago, one of my former Pastors (I'm not sure which) gave what he called the "Tator" sermon. I'm sure many of you have heard variations on this theme which deals with the difference between being a "spectator" and a "participatator." Yes, I know it's spelled funny, but so was the sermon. A couple of years ago, God began to elaborate on the concept for me. I began to see that there were actually five separate and different levels of involvement. Now, the Pastor was trying to encourage people not to be spectators but instead to be participators, and understandably so. And yet, we have all been spectators at some point in life with one experience or another. Before we can participate, we have to know what is going on. This is especially true in church meetings. I, for one, don't go into another church and begin participating until I know a little more about their culture, traditions, protocols, and whether or not I really want to be there. Any time I've experienced a "visitor" come to a service and try to engage themselves without any introduction, I've been somewhat nervous--it just doesn't seem right. Now, maybe some of you are thinking "Well, that seems somewhat selfish and narrow-minded," and to some degree you may be right. I'm not pronouncing my own perfection. And when we stand before the King, I'm sure there will be lots of other people there we didn't expect to see, and some who may be surprised to see us. Uh-oh, I'm digressing (or as Hardly Normal says, "Squirrel!")

Anyway, so being a spectator isn't such a bad thing because at least you're watching and, hopefully, learning. But if you stay at the spectator level, that can be a bad thing. There's a time for watching and waiting. But then there's also a time for action...and that's called participation.

So the second level is participator. Which we will discuss more next time.

Love ya!