Negligence

I suppose I might as well confess. I haven’t always done a good job of maintaining my cars. One vehicle in particular comes to mind, a small red station wagon that I really liked. Liking a car and liking to work on it are not the same thing, however, and changing oil ranked high on the list of things I didn’t like to do. As a result, that poor car went a lot more than the normal 3,000 miles between oil changes

It’s to my shame that there was a very obvious solution to the car care problem. A shop in a nearby town specialized in quick oil changes. The people there could change oil and do other routine maintenance in only ten minutes. Their fees were easily within my budget. With their help, the car would have been well maintained and might have lasted longer than it did. Using the services of this particular shop was a “no-brainer,” but I chose to stay away from the place.

That shop specialized in a brand of oil my friends said was a poor choice. I wasn’t going to compromise by letting those people fill my car with inferior oil. So I drove around with dirty, engine-damaging oil rather than stooping to use an imperfect product.

I still remember driving away and leaving that little red wagon in the junkyard. It didn’t feel good. While I’m not sure my neglect is what put the car in the trash heap, the sloppy maintenance hardly helped prevent that sad day.

There are bigger opportunities for negligence than one’s car, however. In fact, I’m thinking of something far more important and even more personal.

Over the years, I’ve known many Christians who became disillusioned with the church they were in or who moved to a community that lacked a familiar church. You’ve probably known people in such situations and may have experienced similar feelings yourself.

Far too many people respond to this sort of difficulty by choosing to stay home on Sunday. Oh, sure, they might spend some quality time with their Bibles, but they don’t go to church. For Bible teaching and Christian music they hear the recorded voices of strangers. Their Christian neighbors don’t get a chance to encourage them against temptation. No fellow believers are around to provide a reality check when some high-powered speaker presents a marginal doctrine on TV or audiotape. In short, these people aren’t keeping up with their own spiritual maintenance.

Their reasons are all too familiar to a guy who wouldn’t get his motor oil changed. The churches available belong to the wrong denominations. The local churches allow sinful people to come. Some churches don’t follow a particular Bible passage carefully enough. Some churches aren’t conservative enough. Others are too conservative. Maybe the available churches just don’t feel like home. I don’t know all the excuses, but basically it boils down to the idea that it is better to neglect one’s soul than to fellowship with imperfect Christians.

People who care more about the brand of oil available than they do about keeping their cars in good condition wind up dealing with junkyards. People who care more about the “brand” of church available than they do about feeding their souls wind up in poor spiritual condition. It is true we need to avoid churches that don’t believe the facts about Jesus Christ or that teach we must earn our own salvation. But those aren’t the issues that keep most stay-at-home evangelicals at home. Rather, it’s the notion that the exact style of one’s worship or the fine points of one’s theology are as important as basic Christian experience. The instant a Christian lets such an attitude isolate him or her from regular involvement with a Bible-believing church is the instant the wear and tear of an inadequately lubricated soul begin to take their toll.

Don’t let your desire for a perfect church turn you into a spiritual basket case.

Bible Stories

A Father's Faith * A Man for an Impossible Situation * A Mother's Triumph * All they Did Was Show Up for Work * Angels in the Sky * Dealing with the Evidence * Enforcing the Enforcer * Magic Vs. Miracle * Reclaiming a Failure * Taking Away the Stone * The Beginning * The Decision * The Devoted One * The End of the Boy King * The Flood * The Good Samaritan * The King and the King of Kings * The Making of a Traitor  * The Man Who Sold His Rights * The Man Whose Eyes Were Opened * The Outcast * The Secret Agent * The Stranger * The Testing * The View from the Cave * The Weak Commando * Two Men, Two Scandals, Two Results * Where Is the God of Elijah?

Essays

Bridges to Burn * Come in Out of the Cold * Dropping Out * Dying Faith * Everything I Didn't Have * Failed Horizons * Failing for the Lord * Fire Danger * Living Water * Negligence * Spring or Rock Formation? * Stepping Toward God * The Beacon * Swimming with Piranhas  * The Road Through the Swamp * Tracks in the Woods