Instructions Included

Years ago, my father purchased for my mother a vacuum cleaner for a Christmas present. After all presents were opened, he then began putting it together. I read the instructions aloud to him, and he assembled as I read. Finally it read, "Plug in and power on vacuum." We did, but when my father went to grab the handle of the vacuum, he then realized he had assembled the handle upside down. For years, my mother used a vacuum that's handle looked up at her as she cleaned the floors. Needless to say, neither of us are your typical 'handy man.'
When my sister Rachel went to college, my father purchased her a small computer desk that he then asked me to assemble. Upon finishing, I stepped back and admired my handiwork. It was perfect, but I just couldn't figure out why the back of it had a wood stain look against the wall, but that under the desk was not finished and really stood out. It is still like that to this day...and oddly enough, so is the bookshelf in my office. You'd think someone would have caught this and corrected it.
Reality is, the instructions weren't wrong, we just got off track. We had all the right pieces, the right instructions, and the right tools; we had just made an error, and by the time we caught it, we didn't want to go back and fix it all.
They still worked just fine. Most never noticed. Had the designer come in and looked at his pieces, he surely would have pointed out the errors and demanded they be corrected, but that wasn't going to happen.....
For the next few weeks we will look at different areas about the local church. I truly desire the saints of God's counsel. Some of these areas I do not know that I have a concrete answer for, and I will argue both sides. I just feel that many Baptist Churches have become so set in their ways, that they have possibly grown accustomed to errors and do not see them as such. The right pieces are there, the right Instructions are there, and the right Tools are available; but perhaps we have made a few errors that if we were to correct them would demand a lot of work and rebuilding. Not that the church is not working just fine, and most do not even notice; but should THE DESIGNER look over the church, surely he would point out the errors and demand they be corrected. But, that isn't going to happen...or then again-actually He is!