The Church as an Escalator...

Today at church our pastor taught about "Hard-Core Discipleship." He talked about how Jesus' call to "take up your cross daily and follow me" is so much more than just "believing" in Christ. He talked about how many believers have not taken the steps to become disciples, committed to glorifying Christ in every aspect of their lives...Anyway, as he was explaining what Christ did for us, he began explaining the basics of the faith, stating that the only way to get to a relationship with God is through the cross...He had a diagram that he used and that triggered my brain (here goes the ADD again...) to think about another picture that is often used to describe the basics of the Christian faith...It's the one where man stands on one side of a cliff, with a abyss (giant hole) between himself and the other side...On the other side is God...However, between man and God is this extreme gulf, which is sin and leads to death...The whole point is that we can't get to God alone and we need someone to "bridge" our relationship with Him...That is where the cross comes in...Jesus' death on the cross allows us to approach God and have a relationship with Him...Basically, its this picture:

That got me to thinking...Again, I guess the ADD kicked in, but here is my thought process...As you try to cross the bridge of "the cross" you still have to climb up some...Bear with me here...I am not talking about doing stuff to earn God's love or anything like that...But, if we are to take this diagram seriously, their is still some climbing to get over the cross and to God...Now, I know I am being picky toward the diagram and am going into way more detail than the inventor intended, I am sure...But this is how my brain works sometimes...

And as I thought about this, I thought about what the Bible says about the cross...How the cross of Jesus itself is an obstacle to some...Some people simply cannot accept the fact that they have to do absolutely nothing to earn God's love and others can't see even the need of crossing into a relationship with God...Whatever the reason, the cross itself becomes an obstacle to some...

Here is where the blog title comes into play...What if we, as the church, acted as an escalator, so to speak...What if we made it our mission to help people not only see the cross, but to "get over" it to the other side...I'm not talking about dumbing down our faith or offering some watered down theology...I'm talking about obstacles...What if we, the church, decided that instead of putting obstacles in people's way, we would not only make coming to Christ obstacle free, but we would aid people in that decision...By the way we looked, by the way we taught, by the way we communicated, by the way we talk, and act, and live, and share, and love...That we would "be an escalator" helping people rise above the obstacles that exist in coming into a relationship with God, and helping them to see the love of Christ and their need for him as Savior and Master...I know it may sound crazy, but it's just a thought...