Far from Simple Church

Tim Stevens hits the ball out of the park with his post Hey Church .... I'm just not that into you. Read it here.

He lists some expectations church leaders put on people. What it looks like to be a "good" church member (problem is we the equate this to what is required to be a good christian).

1. Attend church service weekly.
2. Volunteer during another service
3. Attend Bible study or Sunday school or midweek service (whatever brand your church offers).
4. Serve in a ministry that helps the poor and needy.
5. If you are a leader (and we know who you are), then we'll have a few more meetings to attend, contacts to make, events to organize and teams to rally.
6. Attend periodic special events hosted by the church.
7. Be a great husband or wife and invest time in your marriage.
8. Oh, and make sure you are involved in men's' or women's' ministry.
9. Get in a small group and meet regularly.
10. If you are a man, you must be in a men's' small group for accountability. Otherwise we know you look at porn.
11. If you are married, you probably should also be in a couples group if you care about your spouse.
12. Read your Bible every day. Anything less than 30 minutes is probably not enough.
13. Be a good citizen. Vote and get involved in your community.
14. Give ten percent of every penny that you make. And give to the special offerings. And give to the kids going on the missions trip. And give to the building fund.
15. Go on a missions trip. Been on a local trip? Overseas is your next step.
16. Invest in relationships in your neighborhood and at your workplace.
17. Invite people to church. Every week. The purpose of that, of course, is so you can get them to church so they can do #1 through #16 above.

Whew!! Don't know about you but I've just failed and I'm not just talking about not attending the Women's Ministry.

Jesus makes being a christian a little more simple (although maybe harder than it sounds)

Love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your might. And while you are doing that love others like you love yourself.

Simple eh?