Give Thanks this week ... for the wrestlers

I saw a lot of pro wrestling as a kid.

Usually I watched on TV, but the best was seeing live wrestling at either The Sportatorium, or at the old Fort Homer Hesterly Armory.  I saw some great matches in that un-air-conditioned smoke-filled arena ... including one terrific night with The Brown Bomber himself, Joe Louis.

But I'm not talking about Pro Wrestlers; I'm talking about the wrestlers on staff at your church.

"Church" doesn't just magically happen at 11 AM on Sunday mornings.  The pastor doesn't spend his work week doing "routine stuff," making hospital visits and dozing off in his office, and then step up to the pulpit expecting to find his message neatly typed by research fairies or sermon gnomes.

Worship music doesn't happen during the service because the worship leader suddenly got inspired during the drive over from his house ... and then just happened to remember the words and chords to the music while walking across the parking lot to the church building.

Nor does stuff get done at church because there's so many folks in the congregation sitting at home during the week calling each other to say, "Why, for what we tithe, somebody down at that church office ought to get busy and do such-and-such."  

And uh oh ... churches don't grow and reach people for Christ because influential members are so adept at flinging dung at the pastor's vision ... while explaining that their opinions are only meant to "fertilize the field for the harvest."  

"Too much fertilizer, and not enough toiling and tilling, leaves the soil stinking."

- Poor Papa's Almanac

Things get done at church and souls are reached for Christ because ordinary folks, people who wrestle with the same fears,  temptations and day to day crises as thee and me, yet who still find strength in God to persevere and place Him first ... put their personal "druthers" aside and show up on Sundays to serve Him.

Too often, church staff "performs and executes" without much acknowledgement from the folks who've come to expect church to "be there" and function like clockwork ... just because the calendar's ticked off another It Must Be Sunday morning.

But the truth is that church happens because ordinary folks, whether church staff or volunteers,  are dedicated to serving and obeying God, no matter what else they're wrestling with in their personal lives.

So instead of finding negatives and criticizing your church through the week, try to start saying something positive and encouraging instead.  Even if it means digging down deep, and doing some wrestling of your own ... to defeat old, un-Godly habits.

Then try calling the church office, and finding out how you can serve to make next Sunday happen.