Too many to count

"I'll live in them, move into them; I'll be their God and they'll be my people. So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good."

And the hits just keep on coming.

I read this morning that according to religion researcher David Kinnaman when you add the "unchurched, the never churched and the skeptics to the nones (those who claim no particular religious identity) that there is 38 percent of the general population who are essentially "churchless."

Kinnaman says that if asked, the "churchless" would likely check "Christian" on a box on a survey even though they might night have been in church for years.

Get that now. Almost 40 percent of America doesn't go to church, according to this researcher.

And I'm in the church planting business, or the restart business.

But, I serve a strong God, capable and sure, trustworthy and powerful.

Remember the story of Gideon? He was called to defeat the Midianites. When he took an army with hymn, God told him, "You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands or Israel would boast against me, 'my own strength has saved me.' "

God simply said lose those men. Twenty two thousand went home leaving 10,000. Still that was too many. God sent all but 300 home. Then he finally gave the camp of Midianites to the Israelites.

It has come to my attention that I cannot, you cannot, do this on your own -- whatever "it" is. God is there for us. The challenges of life are truly outstanding. No one goes through life without them. But God is there for us. He is "our" God.

I read a book last week, a work of fiction that had nothing to do with spirituality except one of the characters was sitting outside at night on a boat and looked up and said, "I don't believe in God. But if I did, He wouldn't be the God of the Bible. That's way too small for God. We couldn't begin to get our minds around who He would be."

I agree. We've thought entirely too small when it comes to Him, and entirely too big about us.

He is our God. Not us.

There will come a time when the 38 percent bow down to a God they don't believe in. When that occurs, our job is not to say "i told you so." No, our job, church planters and church goers alike is to simply say, "I'd like to introduce you to the one who has always loved you most."