Jan-Feb-Mar, 2008 

Why Are We Doing This?

“You are the salt of the earth. ...You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:13-14)

Have you ever had ‘one of those days’ – perhaps as a parent, as a teacher or in your workplace? You know what I mean… a day when everything seems to be challenging you… or an entire season that seems like one step forward and two steps backward? It’s times like that when you find yourself asking the question – “why am I doing this?” Maybe you even ask a friend or your spouse, “tell me again – why did we decide to do this?” It is times like that which test your resolve, your determination and your motivation.

Is it any surprise that ministry is challenging? Why wouldn’t it be? Anytime that we, as Christians, attempt to do the Lord’s work, we are stepping out on the battlefield. On that battlefield, Satan is our opponent; and he will stop at nothing to try and defeat us. And if he can’t defeat us, he’ll try to defer us, delay us and distract us. Distraction is perhaps one of his most powerful weapons. If Satan can take our minds and our hearts off of our God-given goals, then he has a foothold by which to begin chipping away at our effectiveness. Once the enemy has succeeded at distracting us, then he can move on to discouraging us. To avoid being delayed, distracted, discouraged and otherwise “derailed” by Satan, we need to regularly ask ourselves the question, “Why are we doing this?” and so return to our God-given purpose. We need to remind ourselves the motivating and driving force behind our efforts, otherwise “when the going gets tough” as they say, we may lose heart.

So, why are we doing this? Why are we building a Christian church in Queen Creek? Quite simply, because the community NEEDS us! That’s right – whether they know it or not, we have what they need – God. I recently read an article that was pointing out that we no longer live in a “church culture.” That means that on average, people no longer see the church as a relevant part of their life – they have little use for it. The article posits that we cannot wait for people to “accidentally find us” (because they aren’t looking). Instead, our role is to “bring light into a culture that is growing dimmer and dimmer.” We are doing this because our Lord charges us to be the salt and light of the earth! (Matthew 5:13-14). We may have challenges in ministry. We may even have obstacles in front of us. But the Lord has made his call on our life clear – to pervade our world with the message of the Gospel. We cannot shrink back from the task he has given us – too many people are counting on us!