From Your Moderator
I was watching an auto commercial the other day when they said, “When your check engine light comes on, it could cost you a lot of money. I laughed at first because, being an auto mechanic myself, the check engine light is often a minor problem, but left unchecked it could turn into a major concern. This got me to thinking that as a mechanic, I’ve heard other mechanics say that they’re willing to fix your check engine light problem but are slow to fix their personal vehicles with the same problem.
How often do we see a warning sign in our own lives, then tend to ignore it? We think “It’s just something minor, it will go away” but then it doesn’t. Not until we take it to the mechanic. Now in your personal life that check engine light is the Holy Spirit speaking to you, telling you there’s problems you need to take care of. Then we need to take ourselves before the throne of grace, to that great mechanic in heaven. By the way, His name is “Jesus,” and ask Him prayerfully to fix the problem in your life.
Too many of us just turn and walk away from a problem. We ignore it, or forget about it, thinking it’s a small thing and it won’t cause major problems. But it will, and when it does sometimes those problems are irreversible.
I see the same situation in our Churches! And in much the same way, we ignore the small problems. And in the back of our mind, we are just wishing those problems would go away.
I’m reminded of a time the church that we were in was trying to reach out to the community. We had two young boys coming to our church, but everybody thought they were a major problem. The church thought the boys were the reason they weren’t reaching more people as nobody wanted to be around the boys. But I thought, “You know, Jesus would absolutely love these boys and would want them around Him.” As the pastor, I stood by my decision that those boys needed Jesus just as much as anybody else. I stood firm to support them in every way possible. We didn’t see much church growth from other people coming into the church. Then I realized that the problem was not only the boys but was also the people in that church. They perceived these boys as the problem! For them, the check engine light came on and they refused to correct it, fix it, or make it right. Instead, they decided to ignore it.
Several years have passed since then. I have lost track of those boys, but I had heard they both came to know Jesus Christ, and were serving and loving Him in some church somewhere.
One day in heaven, I believe we will be faced with the great mechanic (Jesus.) BUT concerning all those small check engine light problems that we ignore, I believe it’s time we stop wasting time and get down to fixing those problems. It must start first with getting our hearts in tune with our Savior so we have a willing heart, a compassionate heart, to move forward and love those around us. We need to fix those problems, and stop ignoring the check engine lights in our church and in our lives.
Barry Pfister, Interim Director of Missions / Moderator
Mt Salem-Wyaconda Southern Baptist Association
mswdom@marktwain.net
bppastor@yahoo.com
(O) 573-209-3064
(M) 660-734-2080
(H) 573-655-0172
