On Response and Resilience
March 26, 2010
It is very easy for us to answer, “Yes,” West Broad and friends. “Do you want to lose weight?” “Yes.” “Do you want to be in a better financial position?” “Yes.” But what happens when we ask those questions, differently. That is, “Are you willing to change your eating habits and exercise diligently so you can lose weight?” Or, “Are you willing to cut back on expenses, forego pleasures, and deny your ego and desires in order to save money and pay off debt?” An answer to the second set of questions may not be given as readily as the first! Why? Because response is one thing; resilience — the hardcore determination to assume actions that will bring about the thing desired from a response — is something else! The connection that exists between wanting something and doing the work necessary to get it is clearly presented in Scripture (Prov. 13:4; Prov. 14:23). As such, we ask ourselves as a congregation, “Do we want to grow?” Response: “Yes.” But then we ask the question of resilience. That is, “Are you as an individual West Broad member willing to do the work, make the sacrifices, accept the risks, and embrace the challenges required to reach, attract, welcome, serve, baptize, assimilate, and mature unsaved people in downtown Richmond?” See what I mean? Resilience is more demanding than response, but resilience must follow response! As the biblical passages above indicate, each West Broadian must want people to come to Jesus, and each West Broadian must do all he or she can to bring people to Jesus.
Friends, hell is hot and eternity is long (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 14:11). With those realities in mind, it is time for us to step up. —JLNJR (Resource: L. Schaller, Small Congregation, Big Potential, 140).
