As we sat at lunch with some brethren from one metro-area congregation, they mentioned that their building, built in 1968, had a capacity of 700. Current attendance is 60-65. They have twenty classrooms. None are in use. Most members sit in the front for worship, and visitors sit aloof in the back. The disheartening scene!

Nevertheless, filling the building should be the last concern of the church. Fulfilling Christ’s mission should be our concern (cf. Mt 28:18-20). We are to build relationships — seek souls. Buildings are secondary, at best.

I don’t know why these churches are declining, probably a variety of culprits, including Detroit’s economic woes. But it doesn’t matter. The church’s mission can’t change.

Suppose the coal industry were shut down tomorrow. It would change our congregation! But our mission must never change! May our presence in this community never be limited to just our meetinghouse, or our mission dampened by the economy! Will God accept the excuse, “But, the economy …,” for failing our mission? I think not!

Remember, the early church had no building, and many of them were poor (cf. Rom 15:26). And still, with God’s help, the early church overturned the world (cf. Acts 17:6).

Why should we be any different?

Rick Kelley, Prestonsburg KY bulletin
Bulletin-Digest.com

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It is not true that we have no control. You and only you have control of you. You control your actions, words, and thoughts.

No matter how much we want to blame someone else for our actions, we must be honest and admit that everything we do is because we have decided that is what we wanted to do at that time. We might be sorry later, but we must be honest with ourselves: no one makes us do something, say something, or think something. We do what we decide to do.

Here are some questions to help you decide.

1. Who makes you tell the truth?
2. Who makes you tell a lie?
3. Who makes you faithful to your spouse or honest in your business dealings?
4. Who makes you cheat on your spouse or in your business dealings?
5. Who makes you show kindness?
6. Who makes you mean?
7. Who makes you faithful?
8. Who makes you unfaithful?

When you spend time during Bible classes or worship services talking, playing with cell phones, sending or reading text messages, hanging out in the foyer, running back and forth to the bathrooms, going out to the parking lot, going out to talk on our cell phones, you do these types of things because this is what you want to do.

Please realize these things are very disrespectful of the Lord and the people who are trying to worship him. Remember no one controls you but you.

If you are serving the Lord, it is because this is what you have decided to do. No one can make you serve the Lord.

If you are serving the devil, it is because this is what you have decided to do. No one can make you serve the devil.

What will you decide?

—Elders, Iuka MS church
via Bulletin-Digest.com

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Charlie Brown responds, “My fault? How could it be my fault? Why do you say everything is my fault?”

Peppermint Patty replies, “You’re my friend, aren’t you, Chuck? You should have been a better influence on me.”

Influence is one of the most powerful forces within any relationship. Influence can persuade someone to do something that on their own they would never have done. Sometimes that decision is beneficial, sometimes, not.

When you begin to consider something you previously thought was off limits to now be a live option because of people you are around, that should just light you up. That’s a guardrail. That’s two or three yards away from something that you know in your heart you are probably going to regret.

But flip that coin over, and you can become a guardrail for someone else.

What if, instead of worrying about whether you were doing the right thing, you focused on how you can so live so as to influence other people to be better than they would be on their own? What if, instead of trying to hide from Satan, we began to live for Jesus?

There is a difference. It’s a difference in perspective.

“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine all the time, let it shine.”

Jesus said in Matthew 5:13-16,

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

To be the light of the world, we must let people see us doing the right thing.

What is the right thing? God’s will is always the right thing.

We don’t have to point fingers at anyone. We just need to point our lives toward Jesus.

There is likely no stronger influence on anyone than friends. You’ve felt it. Jesus demonstrated it. Now we must live it.

—Sean Ashberry, “The Observer,” Somers Ave. church, N. Little Rock AR
via Bulletin Digest

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I was less than 10 years old the first time I ever went door-knocking, and about that same age the first time I participated in a weekly visitation program. I was afraid. I was weak. I was imperfect. I am still all of these things. The point is that there is really no excuse for not reaching out to people who need the Lord and His church.

There is a place where visitors go to die right in our church buildings. If you wanted to do a study on it in your local congregation, you would locate the spot. Visitors sit there, and nobody speaks to them. They got unlucky.

They just happened to sit in that part of the building where some of the members only talk to their friends after services. Where members beat them out the door as soon as amen is said. Where there are members who have never decided to obey the great commission.

Forget going into all the world. These members won’t even go across the pew.

I am looking for visitors on Sundays. Jesus died for our visitors, too. I may not talk to you every week because I am looking for lost sheep. If you would join me, then we could make sure that there are no places in our building where visitors go to die.

It may not be what you want to hear, but I know exactly where some of the dead spots are in our current building. And unless things change, I hope that visitors don’t sit in those particular places.

Move off your pew and make a place for a visitor. Invite a visitor to eat lunch with you after services. Introduce yourself and tell each visitor you are glad to see them. Invite every visitor to Bible class and show them how to get there.

There is a place where visitors go to die. Make sure that it is not next to you. You are accountable.

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all” (Galatians 6:10).

—Jeremiah Tatum, Willow Avenue church, Cookeville TN, via bulletin-digest.com

—Kippy Myers

We have more than we know what to do with. Garage sale it. Donate it. Stuff it in a closet. Build an addition. One radio advertisement for a storage facility concluded with, “so you can go and get more stuff!” Right!

We have more than we realize. Ungrateful attitudes abound. Why? Enjoyment of life is not attached to prosperity, things, etc. That is a dream held by many in poverty and wealth. Make no doubt, those unhappy without stuff would find a way to be just as unhappy with it.

Jesus’ words never go out of style:

“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

—Rick Kelley, Prestonsburg KY, via Bulletin-Digest.com

He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Really. Do you have a place in mind to preach?”

“Not a clue,” I said.

And then those immortal words that always bring a smile to my face and thanks to my lips that God looks after little children, the mentally incompetent, and preachers.

He said, “Well, even Tarzan didn’t let go of one vine before he grabbed hold of another.”

The rest of the story: My school checks ran out June 30, and I started preaching full-time, 30 minutes away from my mentor and father-in-law, on July 1, 1977.

—Doug Greenway via Bulletin-Digest.com

“There are only two possible explanations as to how life arose. Spontaneous generation arising to evolution or a supernatural creative act of God … there is no other possibility. Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others, but that just leaves us with only one other possibility … that life came as a supernatural act of creation by God, but I can’t accept that philosophy because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation leading to evolution.”

Sounds kind of crazy, but a lot of people do the same thing with other Biblical truths.

In the youth group class we have been studying the book of Genesis. If you have ever read it, you know it begins, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Many people do not want to accept this simple truth. They do not want to put anything or anybody above themselves. We need to learn it doesn’t matter what we think and believe — what matters is what God has said and done.

How many times have you heard someone say they don’t believe God would condemn a particular sin or require a particular thing, even though the Bible says he does?

God is God; we are not. It matters what God has said, not what we think. Take a look at your life. Is there anything you are doing or accepting that is against what we know God has told us? If so, restore God to the rightful place in your life as Lord and Creator.

by Luke Bower, via Baker Heights church bulletin, Abilene TX
Bulletin-Digest.com (Subscribe to the print edition)

However, when the missionary saw him a few days later, he noticed, much to his dismay, that the Bible looked like it was already falling apart, with many of its pages missing. The missionary asked him, “What happened? What did you do to your Bible? When I gave it to you I thought you considered it to be a treasured possession.”

“Indeed, it is a very precious possession, the man replied. “It is the finest gift I have ever received. It is so precious that when I returned to my village I very carefully chose a page and tore it out and gave it to my mother. Then I tore out another page and gave it to my father. And I tore out another page and gave it to my wife. Finally, I gave a page of God’s Word to everybody who lives in my village.”

We may smile at such an event, but what a testimony to this man’s belief in the treasure of God’s Word! God’s Word was so wonderful to him that he wanted to share it with everyone he knew!

May we all have that spirit as we seek and save the lost in America!

—Dale Duverney, Rogers City MI congregation, via Bulletin-Digest.com

• Some exist as social clubs. (Who’s who in your town? Find out here!)
• Some exist because of nostalgia. (Grandma and grandpa did, mom and dad did, so we do, too)
• Some exist for self-preservation. (We’ll do anything to get you in the door!)
• Some exist for entertainment. (Concert, anyone?)

The church of Christ exists for none of these reasons. It primarily exists to do one thing: to spread the good news of Jesus Christ the Savior (Mt. 28:18-20). In this, it brings glory to God (Eph. 3:21).

In fulfilling this mission, it is a family (1 Jn. 2:13-14), an army  (2 Tim. 2:3-4), a brotherhood (1 Pet. 5:9), a body (Rom. 12:5); a royal priesthood (2 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6).

These are a far cry from a nostalgic, self-preserving, entertaining social club. We do well to keep this in mind. The church is identified by what it does, not who’s a part of it, or where it meets.

The church must constantly fight the influence of the world to be anything more or less than God intended it to be.

—Rick Kelley, Prestonsburg KY church, via Bulletin-Digest.com