Free Beer and Wings

I’ve always maintained that if our goal at ALIVE! CommunityChurch was to just attract a crowd and to make people happy, that instead of coffee and donuts on Sunday mornings, we’d offer free beer and wings every Sunday!  Can you imagine what it would be like to get a flyer or postcard in the mail from the church down the street with such an offer?  If people don’t already have their suspicions about a church that gathers for worship in a movie theater on Sunday mornings, that would probably do it!

There’s a real tension for The Church sometimes.  We know that the heart of God beats for people who are living a life of sin and brokenness on their own apart from Him.  We know that Jesus has promised to build His Church, and we want to be a part of working with Him to bring that promise to fruition.  We know that healthy churches are growing churches (but not necessarily that growing churches are healthy churches – see what I did there?) and that means reaching out to people in our community. 

And so we come up with slick marketing and clever slogans and catch phrases in an effort to attract more people.  I’ve fallen prey to that as a pastor and leader in the church.  We might wonder who would show up if, in fact, we did offer free beer and wings on a Sunday morning.  Editorial Note – We do meet at 10 AM, and in the minds of many people that’s not too early to start drinking beer. 

In our daily reading from Galatians 1, we see that there’s no substitute for the pure, unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ in our own lives and in The Church of Jesus Christ and that people pleasing is futile and fruitless. 

In v.6, Paul begins by expressing great concern and shock that the Galatians have turned their backs on the essence of the Good News – that we are made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ by grace and because of his mercy.  In v.7, he says that any preaching or teaching that deviates from the essence of the Gospel “. . . is not Good News at all,” and that those who teach otherwise, “. . . twist the truth concerning Christ.” 

This is so vital for us to understand – in our personal lives and in our lives corporately as The Church.  It’s the Good News of Jesus Christ – not a “new” or “different” Good News, and not a twisted Good News – that calls us to God through “. . . the loving mercy of Christ.” 

This is why, in v.10, Paul emphatically declares, “Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God.  If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.”

Ouch.

That’s a big challenge for The Church.  Free beer and wings won’t cut it.  Lowering ourselves to the standards of our culture (as I talked about yesterday here) won’t cut it.  Slick marketing and being cool and hip won’t cut it.  The pure, unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ is what changes lives for eternity.

How ‘bout you?  Are you living to please people, or are you living to be Christ’s servant? 

The Gospel is an invitation to come and die to ourselves – our sin, our brokenness, our agendas – and to live with Christ.  The Gospel is an invitation to choose to live a holy and blameless life because we love Jesus because of who He is and because of what He’s done for us.  The Gospel is an invitation to transformation.  The Gospel is an invitation to love and serve the least of these in Jesus’ name; to share the Good News (untwisted – see what Paul saysabout those that distort and twist the Good News in v.9) with a lost, hurting and broken world; to pray; to love and to fight for the Kingdom of God in a broken culture. 

When we live for the approval of others, we cease to live for the glory of Jesus Christ.  When we are more concerned about what other people think about us than we are consumed with the calling of Christ on our lives, we’re not living out the life that God has prepared for us. 

Philippians 3:8 – “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”