Open Another Gate

1  C o r i n t h i a n s 9 : 2 2 

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

I’ve used my truck and a sack of cake many times to get my cattle in the pens. So, not too long ago I set out to do just that. I pulled up, the cows saw my truck and came running. I got out, poured the cake into the feed bunks, and the cows rolled right through the gate and into the corrals. What was different about this day was that I needed to load all my cows and move them to a different pasture. So after successfully getting them caught, I backed my trailer up to the gate and began loading them. After getting about half of them loaded in the front of the trailer, I shut the middle gate and was headed back to load the rest of them. When I stepped out of the trailer, I spooked one of the calves that was still in the corrals, and she ran through the corral fence and got out on the road. Scared, she quickly turned and began to trot down the blacktop. I jumped the fence, got on the other side of the road, snuck around her, and began to try and push her back towards the corrals. To my relief, as I was doing this, she decided to climb back through the pasture fence into our place. I know what you’re thinking, “Hey Beau, sounds like you need some better fences,” to which I’d say, “I know, Mr. Obvious.”

While getting her back through the fence was good because she was back in our pasture, I now had to figure out how to get her back into the corrals so I could get her loaded. If you’ve ever gathered cattle and gotten them in the pens only for them to get right back out, you know how hard it is to get them to go back into the corrals right after they’ve escaped. While I knew that her momma and the rest of the cows would draw her back to the trailer, I also knew that it would be a miracle to get her to go back through the same gate she went through before. But being the stubborn man that I am, I went ahead and tried. After thirty minutes of waiting and then attempting to push her, and even letting a few of the cows out of the trailer back into the corrals to try and draw her through the same gate, I gave up—it wasn’t working. So, finally I did what I should have done from the beginning: I shut the gate she had gone through the first time and opened the panels on the other end of the corrals, giving her a new option to get in. I then got around her and, ever so gently, nudged her down the fence toward that new opening, and she trotted right in.

I’ve served in church leadership for over two decades now. One of the things I’ve noticed, is that churches who are willing to change how they do church—willing to try new things and not hold on too tightly to the-way-we’ve-always-done-things mentality—those churches reach the most people. These churches understand that the way we’ve reached people in the past isn’t always going to work to reach them in the future. Just like I had to find a new way to get that calf into the pen, wise churches must be willing to change the methods they use to reach those who don’t know Christ.

What we have to realize is that the world is changing all the time, and, though we will never change the unchanging message of Jesus and the power of His Word, we must be willing to change the method in which we deliver it. Maybe you’re a leader in the church. Maybe you serve on a team at church. Don’t be afraid to change something up. Don’t be afraid to open a new gate so that more people can come to know Christ.

C H E W O N T H I S 

What do you see that needs to change in your church so that you can reach more people for Christ? What can you do to support and encourage your pastors to help them change how your church reaches the world? What can you do personally to make that change happen?

P R A Y E R 

Lord, as much as it depends on me, help me to always be willing to change to reach whoever you have for me to reach. Help my church to always be willing to do things that no one else is doing to reach people that no one else is reaching.