Dr. Eberhard Speaks Out - "Hyping"

The Rev. Dr. David Eberhard will do an article periodically called "Dr. Eberhard Speaks Out." He will challenge us with his thoughts and experience as a leading churchman in America. While we may agree, or not agree, he will share with us what he has learned that works in the local parish. Over his forty years of experience in the ministry, he has always tended to be ahead of the current curve of church practices, and is always "pushing the envelope" to get us to expand our thinking.

In recent months, there has been so much hype about what concerns the American people. Those within the Washington DC beltway think it's who is right, the Democrats or the Republicans. The national administration thinks it's terrorists and war. Others feel it's immigration, jobs, and the economy. But maybe it's simply the extreme cost of gas. Who cares what is going to be done in 2008? Who cares about future cars? Everyone knows the industry does not have to make such big profits at the expense of all of us who need to use our cars. Sometimes hype overwhelms the media with who can be first or who can be the most sensational. Hey everybody, gas is too high - do something now.

This hype carries over into the church and its actions. Even in the field of foreign missions, which are very important in bringing the Good News to all people, sometimes the mission needs so overwhelm us that we tend to hype these needs, at the expense of slacking off the mission work inside the local parishes. So many are saying we have to reach the "unchurched", those whom they think do not believe as they do. Great emphasis is placed on doing "mission work" in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The literature, and pictures in the literature, give the impression that everyone who is not like us is "a heathen", we hype we have to reach them now. So we take mission trips - "junkets" - to save "those" people. Yet indigenous religious leaders in these fields are doing more evangelism reaching out, then we could ever do. They even come to America and do a better job at evangelizing our people. Yet we fail to "reach out" in our home land. We are forsaking our cities, our suburbanites are attending church less and less. The average Sunday church attendance in America is under 125 persons. I guess it is more "in" to go to Haiti, Venezuela, Africa, the Far East than it is to go to Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, etc.

Yes, we need to reach out; yes, we need to reclaim those who have drifted away, but we must also remember we have been "called" to serve those under our care. Hey everybody, I am here, I need the loving news of Jesus Christ as my Savior. How about a little less hype - and more just plain caring ministry.