Last week my wife and I went to a Christmas party held in the home of one of my colleagues. Our host met us at the door and said, “Thank you for coming”, to which I responded, “We didn’t want to miss it because we heard that you were giving away $100 bills as door prizes.” We all chuckled at my lame joke and went on to have a great evening. But, …

It seems that The Lighthouse Church of All Nations in Alsip, Illinois is doing exactly what I joked about. During a sermon series on personal finances they have been giving out $1000 as door-prizes each Sunday. During this sermon series / promotion church attendance has increased by more than 10 percent. I can’t imagine why… or can I?

Thoughts?

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A recent article in Leadership Journal was entitled “Serving Is Believing”. Is it? The results coming out of the Reveal study conducted in hundreds of churches by Willow Creek seem to indicate that people who are serving are also those who are closest to God, so much emphasis is being given to getting people serving. Serving must be the better way.

Service talk is everywhere.

And yet, we have the story of Jesus’ interactions with Mary and Martha in Luke 10:

38Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

If we spend our time teaching the Bible, teaching about the life of Christ, are we simply filling people with useless head knowledge? I don’t think so.