Why is church work so difficult?

Church work is hard everywhere. Did you pray at your last deacons' banquet, "Lord, thank you for preparing a table for me in the presence of my enemies"? Is your church so small that when you say "Dearly Beloved," your wife is embarrassed?

Do you feel as if each sermon is like explaining Leviticus to a four-year-old? Do you feel like you are the Titanic and the church is the iceberg? Is your latest vision statement "Misery loves company"? Was deacon grump-a-lot voted chairman and his wife believes her spiritual gift is suffering?

Speaking of suffering, did your best deacon say he never understood suffering until he heard you preach? And worse, the chairman of your over-budget and under-financed committee has been there so long it is rumored he is the one who ratted on Ananias and Sapphira…

Why is church work so difficult? It is the people. They are everywhere. If you don't like the people at your church, remember they are at every other church. They are all defective--just like you and me. We have been recalled by our Maker….It's always been that way. That is why Jesus had more religious people plotting against Him than praying for Him.

--Charles Lowery, www.charleslowery.com, excerpted from "ALERT! Recalled," in SBC LIFE (www.SBCLIFE.net), June/July 2011, p. 24

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