As Long As They're There

I was racking my brain. Let's just stop right there. Is "racking" a billiards term? Like racking the balls before you break them. If so, we've got trouble right here in River City. Is it muckraking? A term, I think, originated by Teddy Roosevelt in the days of Ira Tarbell and yellow journalism. Is it related to raking, like leaves? Sifting through the mulch that is my brain, I figured out a great promotion. I call it Pac-Bell Park Sunday. We invite everyone to what might be SBC park now, or did AT & T just buy them out? Anyway, right before the first pitch I stand in front of my section, read Scripture and pray, and we've done church. I announce that I had over 40,000 in the services. Someone says, "But they aren't there for the right reason." I answer, "Who cares, as long as they're there."

I'm considering the advantages. People would want to come. They would get lots of general revelation. People would really like the building. I would have some impressive statistics when it was all done. The building is already built, so no building programs, no debt. People go away happy. Does it really matter why people come to church? Isn't God seeking for true church attenders? Someone argues, "But you've crossed the line. That's not church." And when do we cross that line? Could we say that we cross that line at any point where man becomes first in the arrangement, including in the motivation? If God doesn't "work," you know, seem a good enough reason, how do we try something else, in essence, accommodating their view that God isn't as great as the thing we're using to motivate them? How can we sincerely correct that when we are the ones that targeted their flesh in the first place? Is "make no provision for the flesh" a command for every believer, or is that command voided as long as they're there?