Many writers are expressing that we’re now in a post-Church world; a world where people no longer look to the church for answers or hope. As a culture, people aren’t finding value in attending a meeting on Sundays and they aren’t seeing a tangible difference in the lives of those who do.
        So what’s the answer? Is it more entertaining services on Sunday? Video games in KidZone? More laser tag and Schlitterbahn trips for the teens? Is the way to show people the beauty of Christ to feed their already gluttonous consumer appetite? You know it’s not.
        Jesus gave us the answer when he told us, “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine so that people will see the difference a relationship with me makes.”
(My paraphrase of Matt. 5:14-16) We have to live differently.
        If I don’t have margin in my lives to invest in people because I’m too wrapped up in my own activities, then how will they ever imagine that God has time for them or that he cares for them. If my lifestyle, my marriage, my integrity, my ambition, my level of purity, my tendency to complain isn’t any different than their own, then why should they add Jesus to the mix?
        We’re to be salt in the world–an additive they makes things better. If we embrace the values and ways of the world, then we lose our saltiness. The Lord is convicting me about this. He’s asking me to examine my life. What are the compromises I’ve made? Where does my life look more like the world and less like Jesus? Where have I rationalized away his commands for the sake of my own life’s objectives? How can I be more salty?