Decision Sunday - Time to Decide

"What was that postcard all about?" was the question posed to me more than once on Sunday. "You know the one with the question mark?" and said, "Time to Decide?"  The posters were up and were drawing equally perplexing thoughts. "Decide what?" was the question of the day. 

It is no wonder that people were wondering, that's half the battle when promoting something; to get people to want to know what is going on. So in that respect the postcard and poster campaign was a huge success. In another respect, maybe the multitude of questions, shines a more negative light on the state of what we call church. Not just Berean Christian Church in little old Murphysboro mind you, but the state of church in general in our area, nationally or universally.  

See, years ago no explanation was necessary. We all knew and understood the need for a decision. Going back to when I was much younger we were raised on the "decision". Each service had a decision time and at the end of the sermon the congregation and attendees were asked if they had a decision to make. That decision was about accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, or if you were already a believer, to become a member or part of the congregation or local church. Lastly, your decision could be, to come forward for prayer, support or to rededicate your life to Christ.

We had special hymns that were reserved for this special time. "I Surrender All", "Jesus, I Come", "Have Thine Own Way Lord" and even the scary and contemporary (for 1969), "I Wish We'd All Been Ready".  That old Larry Norman Song has made a comeback recently, recorded by DC Talk. But, the service and songs all pointed to the fact that Christianity is all about deciding. But times have changed and now it seems that "easy Christianity" is the credo where I do what I want and because I attend church sometimes it is gonna be all good when I'm called home or Jesus comes back. But, that is not Christian faith and we are deceiving ourselves if we think that it is and at church now-a-days, we are almost afraid to ask a simple questions or to encourage a decision. It is a far cry from when Peter "pleaded" with the people on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:40)

But individually we must decide to follow Jesus, we must decide to get baptized, we must decide about repentance, we must decide that Christ died for our sins, we must decide to join a church, we must decide to live for Him. But, those decisions are just the tip of the iceberg. I must decide to reach out to others I know that need Christ. I must decide to praise Him with reckless abandon. I must decide to read the Bible and increase my prayer time. Each and everyday Christians get to decide. We owe each person the opportunity to decide by simply asking.

So this Sunday we are going to have a service dedicated to decision time and asking. I know that many have been wavering on deciding many of things listed above or we may know someone who needs to make a decision. Invite them, pray for them and be there for support. To grow God's church we must decide!

See you Sunday. I hope you decide to be there.