New Church Plant

Today we attended church with our friend Charles. This is a new church plant currently meeting at a member’s house in our neighborhood.

Sierra Leone Missionary Team Meeting

Strategic planning, along with good food and fellowship, were among some of the activities on our recent trip to Sierra Leone.

Why Is Your Candle Burning?

I am an American. More specifically, I am an American woman. From that point of reference, one can understand my appreciation and love for scented candles. In America we have shops dedicated to selling candles scented with fragrances to suit personal preferences, to evoke desired moods, and to denote seasons of the year. It is not unusual to enter an American home and be greeted by the scent of a candle signaling welcome and creating an atmosphere of warmth.

I am currently an American woman living in Africa. Wanting to create the same welcome and warmth in my home in Africa as I do in America, I still appreciate and love scented candles. Recently I taught a concentrated course for two Bible school students in my home. Each day before they arrived, I lit a scented candle and left it burning on my living room coffee table. Each day I enjoyed its aroma and felt that I was making my guests feel the welcome and warmth of my home.

On the last day of class, one of the students said that he wanted to ask me a question on behalf of himself and his classmate. They both wondered why I had a candle lit every day that they came for class. These students are Africans. In Africa candles are usually not scented, and their purpose is not to provide fragrance or evoke emotion. Their purpose is to provide light when it is dark. These young men had not even realized that the candle was scented. It had not served to make them feel welcomed or warm. Instead, it had served only to make them curious about my actions.

Consider that you live in a home that does not have electricity. By day, there is sunlight, but at night there is only darkness. To dispel that darkness you need a light of some sort, typically a candle or a fire. From this point of reference, it seemed like such a waste to light a perfectly good candle in the middle of the day, when it would be most beneficial to burn at night.

I began to liken this example to the present-day church. I began to ponder whether or not our methods of doing church are more about making people feel warm and welcome rather than dispelling the darkness of sin in their lives. A candle was originally created to provide light. The church was originally created for the same purpose. Jesus spoke to His disciples about this ight on more than one occasion:

• John 8:12, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life."
• Acts 13:47, "For so the Lord has commanded us, 'I have placed you as a light….that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.'"
• Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world……let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven.”

Do we conduct church in such a way that those in darkness see the light of the glorious gospel, or do we, instead, behave in such a way that they only question our actions?

There may be nothing wrong with altering our means of presentation - unless we forget our real purpose of leading others in the light. There may be nothing wrong with adding programs and events - unless we expend so much of our time and energies on these things that we forget our real purpose of dispelling the darkness. Changes in methods may create the feelings of welcome and warmth we desire, or they may go totally unnoticed by those who are in need of light rather than atmosphere.

I am not attempting to be critical of the church but, rather, to be introspective and honest about our reason for operating as we do. I am not suggesting that we do away with modern approaches to ministry any more than I am suggesting that we do away with scented candles. Both offer attributes that enhance their usefulness. But I am desiring that the church re-examine its priorities and remain focused and committed to the original intent for which it was created and to accomplish God’s purpose of being light and dispelling darkness until He returns.

Why is your candle burning?