Commitment & Opportunity

Today I had a great conversation with a few local pastors about the current state of discipleship in the American church.  We talked about the need for commitment from those within the church, which is very true.  If a person doesn’t ever commit to anything, how can they ever expect to grow spiritually?

This week is our week of prayer & fasting, as I mentioned yesterday.  During this week individuals have been asked to give up food and spend extra time in prayer for this new year.  That’s some big time commitment!  For those of you that are pastors, don’t ever feel bad asking for big commitment from your church.  Give them the chance to stretch themselves.

The one thing I’ve appreciated about this week is, in asking your church to commit to something, you need to give them opportunity to fulfill that commitment.  When you give opportunity, you now increase the chance that someone will commit.  We have asked people to give up food and spend extra time in prayer this week – to give them opportunity to succeed in that commitment, we have a daily hour of prayer at noon and a special service each evening.

You see, when you ask your people for commitment, which is lacking in the American Church today, you need to set them up for success.  Give them opportunity to follow through with that commitment.