Better Than One

On HGTV, David Bromstad who won last year’s Design Star, hosts a show called “Color Splash”.  When I walk into many churches, color splash is not what I see - anemic, plain, same, white, off white.  There was a time that painting church walls white was cheap, simple, and safe.

However in our culture today, adults are noticing what color is on the walls.  Youth (students) in the past always wanted to redo their area walls with “grab you” colors and design.  I was sitting with a pastor in Panera Bread shop and he asked me if I felt the ambience and the energy and solitude in the restaurant?  I had noticed Panera’s color scheme. 

I have visited Boones Creek Baptist Church which was organized in 1785.  It is in a beautiful country setting with a building of history.  One day I entered by the side door that led into the preschool and children’s area and I found a color splash that made me feel like I was in a 2008 building.  The church secretary, Jennifer, and her mom had brought a dated walk-out basement setting into an inviting, warm, and creative area.

This is the information Jennifer sent me when I asked for color splash help.  “We used semi gloss paint, in American Tradition Colors.  The exact colors were Purple Royalty (Purple), Sunspark (Yellow), Fresh Persimmons (Orange), and Water Fountain (Blue).  My mom is just painting things on the walls as they come to her, but it is all in a Noah’s Ark theme.  The borders for the pictures are tomato red and white.”

Try a little “Color Splash” - It is a simple outreach tool. 

Much emphasis is being placed on the subject of Comeback Churches.  And rightly so!   All of us know the mess we are in as we look at many of our churches.  An article printed in a recent issue of the Western Recorder quoted SBC President Frank Page saying that unless something is done, the SBC could lose as many as half it’s churches by the year 2030.  He says it is our fault! 

A church seldom rises any higher than the leadership of it’s pastor.  If our churches are dying, then can  we not rightly surmise that they are being led by dying pastors?  Realizing I am speaking in generalities, that not every floundering church is led by a floundering pastor, but some are.  The burden of change and resurgence is squarely on the shoulders of  those of us called to ministry and called to pastor the Lord’s churches.  What can we do as pastors?  Maintain a daily walk with the Savior.  Spend time with Him and seek to intimately know Him and His will for your church.  Lead the church to do what God has led you to do.  Inevitably that will require vision and change.  Accept all the help you can get, whether it be offered by your State Convention or another church.  Realize we do not have all the answers or we wouldn’t be in the shape we are in.  Let the congregation hear from your heart the burden you have for growing the church and the Kingdom. 

Could it be said “we have met the enemy and the enemy is us?”  Pastors, if our churches are ever to comeback or do a turnaround, it may be required that we come back first!