Seeker-sensitive churches and wrestling with wet wood

It’s a cold morning. Whimsy rousted me out of bed, so I set about making coffee and building a fire in the hearth. Here, my day got off to a slow, tough start. The wood was wet with frost and sat there sizzling and fizzling, frustrating me, the cold,\ groggy fire-starter.

What should have taken five minutes turned into a wrestling match with a balky bunch of twigs and sticks that I kept rearranging and blowing at, resulting in a great deal of smoke, but little fire.

Similarly, people who start seeker-sensitive churches want to start crackling fires in cold places. They attempt to speak and listen in ways that a spiritual conversation can be ignited. It’s a missionary enterprise and a noble one.

At some point, a fire needs to ignite. Sometimes, the wood of spiritual inquiry is so wet with cynicism that all it will do is sizzle, filling the room with smoke.

Around the world today in places like Mozambique, South Korea, and the Ukraine, spiritual bonfires are blazing away. Whole populations are warming themselves in their glow.

Those who would tend wet wood sometimes confuse the smoke with fire and should be forgiven for interpreting reality through the lenses of hope. It can be a thankless task, but we need their missionary heart and vision. I personally think more of us need to be seekers – seeking God himself for all we’re worth, and seeking his missionary heart.

Along those lines, here’s a great promise: “You’ll seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13) All my life I’ve been a seeker – maybe that’s why I love that verse.