Thursday, January 10, 2008

If the preaching thing ever runs its course...




Last Sunday we kicked off our McWorship series. What is the McWorship series? It is a verse by verse study through the Old Testament book of Malachi. Why are we calling it “McWorship?” The actual title of the series is, “McWorship: Authentic Worship in a Fast Food Culture.” You see, in Malachi’s day the people were going through the motions of worship but their worship was anything but authentic. The same is true in our culture today. We live in a fast food culture which has become much of who we are. As a result, our “want it fast” and “want it our way” attitude has seeped over into our worship.

Through this “McWorship” series covering the book of Malachi we will see 8 key words that we must understand if we are going to be authentic worshippers of God. Last week we looked at the word LOVE and saw that authentic worship involves a proper response to God’s love. This Sunday we will focus on the word SERVICE and see that authentic worship involves serving God with our very best.

As we approached the start of this series, I got a phone call from a lady who lives in Lititz but does not attend our church. She had seen the McWorship symbol on the Christmas promotion we had sent out and wanted to know more about the series. After explaining the concept to her she thought it was just great. She works at one of the area McDonald’s restaurant. She has worked there for…get this…21 years. WOW! She then asked me if I would be interested in wearing a McDonald’s uniform to preach in as I started the series. Well, how do you say “no” to a woman who has worked at McD’s for 21 years?

So a few days before the start of the series, this dear lady showed up at the church with an official McDonald’s employee shirt, tie and hat. She had a large shirt and an extra large shirt and asked which one I would wear. It felt good to be able to say, “The large shirt will do just fine.” Hey, I haven’t lost the 40 pounds I have lost over the past 6 months by eating Big Macs and Quarter Pounders, I’ll tell you that! Actually, even the large shirt was a bit baggy one me! How cool is that? The tie made me laugh, though, because it wasn’t one you tie. Nor was it a clip-on. It was Velcro. That’s right…a Velcro tie. I don’t know if that is for safety reasons in case it gets caught in something or what. Oh, well, I looked the part last Sunday as you can see by the attached picture! In fact, I was really tempted to go to McDonalds for lunch after church and see if maybe, just maybe, they might give me the employee discount!

It actually brought back memories. When I was in High School I worked at a fast food restaurant. It wasn’t McDonalds. It was a Burger Chef. I don’t even think they ever had Burger Chefs out this way. Six months into my job I was promoted to Back Line Night Shift Leader. That meant that I got a raise and free food (which probably accounted for the huge acne problem I had in High School). By the time I graduated they were asking me to consider a career in management. Actually, I think that could have been fun and the pay would not have been horrible. But, I was convinced that God had called me to preach so I turned down the offer. But, if the preaching thing ever runs its course…

No comments: