I heard a statistic in one of our staff meetings from a speaker: 77% of Americans believe that Christianity is more about organized religion than about loving people. Sadly, I wasn’t as disturbed or shocked as i should have initially been. And yet at the same time, over 66% of people are interested in finding out more about spirituality and are open to the Bible; but none of them would go to a church. The speakers point was taht we need to get out and cultivate those one on one relationships.
After thinking about it for a while, I realized how sad it was that I had not been more appalled by the first statistic. I have always felt like my face was based on a relationship and not a religion. But when an unsaved person hears that I am a Christian, he will associate that with going to church and not a personal relationship with Christ; that is UNLESS he sees it lived out daily. This impressed even more upon me that nothing is more important than my personal witness. Working at church means squat if I don’t live out the difference that Christ has made and continues to make in my life every day.