Think for a minute. What is your number one priority? That is an unfair question, really. We have our lives. Spouse, kids, grand kids. Those are priorities. We have our work. That brings a whole different set of priorities. Friends are another priority. Life becomes rough without friends. There are things you can only tell a friend, things you can do with a friend. And then there are the priorities of your faith. Church, maybe a personal ministry, prayer time, Bible time. We work those things in as best we can.

I have been doing ministry now going on 47 years. (Seems like I just started and now I am looking at fifty years! Mercy!) I have seen these priorities at work hundreds of times. In fact, right off hand I do not remember anyone who didn’t have a priority. And it can be inspiring! There are some who have a priority that is strictly self-serving. They like to hunt or fish or work on engines or whatever. But mostly, people have as a priority something that benefits others. I know a man. Bob. Bob’s wife was Pat. He had come home on leave from WWII just before shipping out to England. He met this cute little thing and got her to marry him. You know the spiel, “Baby, they’re sending me off to war. I don’t know if I will ever be back. Please give me something to remember you by.” “I know what you want, Bob. If we were married it would be different. And don’t call me baby.” “Then let’s get married, Baby.” “Well, since you put it like that, OK, let’s get married!”  Bob went on to storm the beaches on D-Day with staying alive for Pat on his mind. He was completely devoted to her. Sure, there were kids and later grand kids and then great grands, but it was always Pat. In 2003 I sat with Bob and Pat as Pat passed away. The old gentleman turned to me and said, “What do I do now, Pastor?” I didn’t know how to answer. He had just lost his greatest priority. He was lost and alone in a busy and well populated hospital.

“What do I do now?” A plaintive question. One filled with pain, but a question also reflecting the sense of loss one has when the focus in their life is gone.

We all have priorities. I mentioned faith priorities earlier. I said we work those things in as best we can. That wasn’t a slap in the face. God created family way before He created organized worship. Before family came the quiet and restful conversations with God, conversations which expressed love but also received instruction. So, prayer and seeking instruction (we would say now, reading the Word) are the first priority. But when God created the family unit, it was an expansion on the prayer and seeking. They go together as priorities. Even so, most put family priority above their faith priority.

How does that affect our church lives? At the very best, our church lives should be a growth from our personal lives. We must be Spiritual in ourselves before we can be Spiritual in our church lives. Otherwise, the church, and you, will stagger along like a drunk man in a hurricane. In a perfect world the church reflects our personal lives.

In a perfect world. We don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a world where many equate Spiritualty with being of a certain political party. We live in a world that presents pleasures that are far from Godly. We live in a world that demands a change in priorities from things of God to things of the world.

We live in a world of dying churches.

Our church priority is meeting the bills, having worship in the building we want to worship in, not being too hot nor too cold, seeing our friends, starting on time, ending on time, music we like, preaching we like and…well, that is about it. Those priorities may vary from church to church in their execution, but that pretty much says it all. Because our priorities are mostly focused on what we want right now, churches have no future. The church stumbles along and the people in the church explain it away with, “All churches are going through this right now.” Meanwhile, the church continues to die.  

Read the passage below;

Proverbs 29:13-23

¹³ The poor and the deceitful man meet together: the Lord lightens both their eyes.

¹⁴ The king that faithfully judges the poor, his throne shall be established forever.

¹⁵ The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself brings his mother shame.

¹⁶ When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases: but the righteous shall see their fall.

¹⁷ Correct your son and he shall give you rest; yes, he shall give delight unto your soul.

¹⁸ Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he.

¹⁹ A servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understands he will not answer.

²⁰ See a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him.

²¹ He who lovingly brings up his servant from a child shall have him become his son in the end.

²² An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression.

²³ A man's pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.

          There seems to be very little in common from one verse to the next in this passage, except each individual proverb has something to do with relationships. Much of Proverbs is like this, so folks have a tendency to just take a single verse out of context and let that speak to them. However, this is a writing technique in the Hebrew language. Many translations arrange their passages in paragraph form as they were intended. In Proverbs, this collection of verses seems to be disjointed and unrelated. But, in this case and most others in the book, you are to look to the sentence in the center of the paragraph to bring it together. Here, the central sentence is verse 18; Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he. Now the disjointed quality of the passage begins to make sense. When we lose our vision, our revelation from God, we begin to disrupt relationships. We can see what is going on, we can even identify the problem, but we do not have the vision, or desire, to do anything about it. Call it not having a priority.

          Once the Urbana Yoke Parish made a decision as to what to do with the buildings, it became a priority. We began to work together in unity, and we, through the power and inspiration of the Lord, did something truly special. The priority came from the congregation. It was sustained by the congregation. It has become a source of pride. Not self-pride, but pride in what God can do among His people. Following close behind all those changes came the pandemic and the mandatory closing of the church. The Lord had prepared us with the equipment to deal with that, but we needed a committed core of people to play it out. God gave a vision, a priority, to a small group of people to learn on the fly and to be faithful to His call. It was a church wide priority, but one where only a few were physically needed. Others participated through prayer and support.

          But where are we now? What is our vision or priority, that thing we feel strongly about? Have we accomplished everything and we no longer need a vision? If we think we have accomplished everything there is to accomplished then we have but one reality…

          Urbana Yoke Parish is a dying church.

          There is much to do if we are to be strong and robust in the next decade or two. And there is much to lose.

          We need vision. We need a priority.

          For two Sundays in a row, it has been announced that we are putting together a feasibility committee to look at what is needed to start a Youth group. Exactly TWO people have expressed an interest. The general feeling is, yes, it would be good to have a group, but who would run it? I’ll kick in a few bucks now and then, but who will run it? Boy, I remember when (put in a name here} did the Youth! Yeah! That was pretty good! We need someone to step up!!!

          OK. Will you do it? No time? Too old? Other priorities? Everyone is in that boat. But look around on Sunday morning and think ten years in the future. We are OK now, but where will we be in ten years? It is a scary thought.

          So, a feasibility committee. What will it cost? Where will it meet? How long before it is a functioning entity? A feasibility committee will look into it. We call a real Youth pastor. He/she has to live, they will need materials and, if they have a family, they will need other things. Will the upstairs be OK for the Youth? Most likely, unless there is someone who is handicapped. And since anyone coming in will be starting with nothing, it will take five years to really get rolling. Now, I can almost hear some of you thinking…”If we have no Youth, why do we need a Youth pastor?” It is the difference between driving on a road on a nice, sunny day and trying to drive through heavy woods without even a path to follow, in a storm. Unless the infrastructure is there first, you will not succeed.

          A committee like this costs nothing except a commitment of time and the ability to do away with preconceived ideas. Two people have taken an interest. We had a feasibility committee to look into the church building situation, and that was great. This should be no different.

          Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he. What is your vision for this church?

          If you would like to be involved, check in with Chris Hann. He is the president of the church Board. He will set you up.

          Blessings.