Some of you may remember(if you are over 40) the television commercial that Wendy’s Hamburgers ran in the 70’s with two little old ladies looking at a hamburger bun with a speck of meat on it and one of the ladies passionately asks, “Where’s the Beef?” Obviously, the commercial was a slam to Wendy’s competitors. Wendy’s straightforward, in your face commercial brought fame and fortune to their corporation.

Here we are in 2007 and the question begs, “Where’s the Church?” There are far too many churches out there that have the idea that they need to get everyone in the congregation to a spiritually mature level before they can begin to reach out in the community. That is a bunch of crud, baloney, lies, and those are the nice terms. I love these brothers and sisters, but I have decided not to expend any more effort towards them as I have a vision and mission to raise up doers of the word and not hearers. To do and not hear, needs to be the war cry of churches in America.

I am becoming more and more aware that God is opening more and more doors for me to build relationships with those that are not yet believers (lifted that term from my friend Steve Sjogren). Those not yet believers I am encountering will someday become believers. I believe that because Jesus promised it! He promised it would be so in John 14:12-14. As I am getting older, (I still consider myself young at 45), I am relying more and more on the promises of God, not the knowledge of man. For far too long we have relied on the knowledge of man, denominations, and ourselves which have failed over and over again.

The church is alive in America. I don’t necessarily believe it is well or healthy, but it is alive and she does have a strong heartbeat. Here in northeast Ohio the veil of spiritual darkness is being lifted as God is on the move in our area. We are seeing new churches planted and a movement of God in the hearts of men who want overtake this area for the Savior.