The Plumbing Truck

I was driving to Birmingham, Alabama, for a meeting and got behind a plumbing truck.  On the back of the truck, there was an advertisement that described this particular plumbing company as Clean, Courteous, On Time, Background Checked and Drug Free.  


I thought about this for a moment.  These were pretty good filters if you happened to be looking for someone to come into your home and fix your plumbing.  If I am going to let that person into my home, I want them to have ALL of those characteristics!


But being a church planter like I am, I took this a little bit deeper.  We want our plumber to have all of these characteristics, but how about those people who are the 'guardians of our soul?'  What qualifications do we expect them to have?


Church planting has forced me to look at church a little differently.  What if church were like the advertisement on the back of that plumbing truck?


1.  Clean.  
Church is not a second rate show.  It should be done excellently.  I believe in being very frugal but NEVER cheap.  Do things with preciseness and excellence.  The things we do for God should be the best that we could ever produce.


2.  Courteous
What if we treated all people like Jesus said we should treat them?  What if people came into church and really felt like people in the church genuinely cared about them no matter who they were or what they looked like?


3.  On Time
Yes, church should respect time, not waste it.  Church should be the most focused and mission centered experience that we ever have.  It is a reality in our world that the span of human attention is relatively short.  Church should maximize the moment.  Time is our most valuable resource and we should use it wisely.


4.  Background Checked
Church should be a safe place.  We must take responsibility to protect people not only from bad lifestyles, bad doctrine but also from 'bad' people.  


5.  Drug Free
Let me paraphrase what this means:  someone who is not a crazy crook.  And, yes, the church has been guilty before of being crazy and being full of crooks.  Let's take this one by one:


a.)  Crazy.  Often the church has packaged so many of the good things that God desires us to have in confusing and spooky ways.  It's very easy to blame our self-centered expressions and beliefs on the Holy Spirit.  Church should be a place of balance.  If you don't believe that God will hold you accountable for freaking people out then read 1 Corinthians 14:23.

b.)  Crooks.  One of the major problems the church has faced in the last 15 years has been the total lack of integrity among church leaders.  Church should be done above reproach and leaders should live lives above reproach.  People don't come to church to experience a con job.  People come to church to experience Jesus.  Let's build our churches and ministries on uncompromised integrity in all areas.


I love the church, and I do believe church can be different!  It can be a reflection of church like it was in the book of Acts.  That's what I long for.


And, believe it or not, you can learn a whole lot from a plumbing truck.