Once upon a time, in a community
just like yours, there was a
mountaineering club.

Their goal was threefold:

1) To get more people
interested in climbing
mountains and in joining
the club.

2) To train those people up to be great  climbers

3) To send them out on expeditions to climb uncharted mountain ranges all
over the world.

The club was started by a man who had climbed Whitney, Kilamangaro, and
all throughout the Himalayans.

Every week the group met together with excitement. They talked about the
history of mountain climbing, the most important tools, new explorations around
the world. They sponsored special events in the community like Easter Egg hunts
and Halloween parties to draw people into their group.
Everybody in the club was impressed with the founder’s achievements.
Some of them had climbed similiar ranges as well.

Every week they talked about climbing mountains.
Every meeting was about climbing mountains.
In fact, every meeting ended with the founder saying these words:
“Let’s go out there and climb a mountain”.

The funny thing was that for as much as the group was assembled to
generate interest, equip the people to climb and send out expeditions —
they rarely did more than just talk about it.

There were lots of reasons for this.
Some of the members in the club had families.
(And everybody knows it’s not wise to climb mountains
when you have a family).

Other members were too active in their businesses to take time
off for expeditions.

Still others were plain scared of mountains and didn’t really feel
comfortable in the outdoors.

Some members made it their mission to recruit others to climb
mountains and join the club. But the prospective recruits never materialized
(because who would take  advice about mountain climbing from someone who
wouldn’t actually do it themselves).

Week in and week out, they talked, planned and worked themselves up into
a frenzy about the importance, the glory, and the wonderful nature of
mountain climbing.

But they rarely, if ever, did it.

That, in a nutshell, can be the church sometimes.
This truth makes me sad — and convicts me because I am part of it too.
But it also spurs me on to want to do what God is calling us to do — not just talk about it.