Inertia

Inertia. This is Newton's first law of motion. It can be summarized like this: "An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force OR an object in motion tends to stay in motion in the same direction and at the same speed unless acted upon by an external force." The external force that acts on that object has to be greater than or applied for a period of time long enough to overcome the current force acting on the object and the momentum of that object.

Do churches have inertia? Certainly not physical inertia, but maybe spiritual inertia? Churches moving in a particular direction will continue in that particular direction. Is your church "at rest"---plateaued or declining? Is your church "in motion"--moving forward for the Great Commission? Your church will continue in that direction unless acted upon by an "external force".

Except...the church is not an object. The church is people. She is the people of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God brought together and commissioned for the purposes of God in the redemptive plan of God for the whole world. The "external force" (I know the Holy Spirit is not a force; just go with the analogy please) has already acted upon us when He gave us spiritual life. We need Him to act on us again; to wake us up from our spiritual slumber, to break us out of our "at rest" position, to change our direction with such a magnitude that we are "swept up in the flow" of the river of God's grace and power!

Many churches and Christians are "at rest". You are comfortable, you are satisfied with the status quo, you are content to watch everyone else do the work or you complain about the ones who are doing the work because they didn't ask you about it.

Ephesians 5:14 says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."