Accountable to God
Apr 2, 2009 Print This Post
The last week or so has been slow blogging, but I have a lot floating around my brain including 1/3 of a verse has been dogging me. And since I told you at the beginning of the year that I would share more of this stuff, here I go.
[A pastor's] work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God…
-Hebrews 13:17
“Accountable to God.” – Those are daunting words.
One day, I will stand with the other elders at Riv and give an account for the souls of everyone in our church.
Maybe “daunting” isn’t a big enough word.
I once heard someone say, “if you can do anything other than being a pastor, do it.” Maybe this is what he meant.
I have been thinking a lot about the spiritual health of Riv lately. I have been praying and thinking and plotting and sweating over this crazy bunch of people. My brain started going down this path when we got the results of our annual census. Here are a few of the stats that got me going:
96% of the people at Riv consider themselves “a committed follower of Jesus Christ”
19% of the people at Riv say they read the Bible or pray 6-7 times a week
26% of the people at Riv say they give 5% or more of their income
42% of the people at Riv say they volunteer in some capacity at Riv
I’ll admit, at first these numbers really bummed me out. If 96% of the people at Riv consider themselves “committed followers of Jesus Christ,” why aren’t the other numbers higher? But then a friend of mine told me to reconsider my analysis of the data.
He encouraged me to look at these amazing stats:
75% of the people at Riv have been here less than 5 years
56% of Riv people are under 30 (not even counting the kids)
30% of Riv attenders had no church home before coming here
My friend suggested something completely different than where my brain was headed: opportunity. There are so many young people, so many new people, so many new Christians coming around here that our numbers are actually encouraging. It’s amazing to see so many people inviting their friends and plugging into our church family. In fact, 89% of the people at Riv were invited to attend the first time by a friend!
We have an awesome opportunity and great challenge ahead of us as a church. Things like our Text.RivChurch.com project and Life Groups are taking off this year, with more people than ever spending time in the Word and connecting at a deeper level with people.
Riv is my family, and we’re a crazy dysfunctional bunch. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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