purse strings

Friday October 3^rd, Matthew 21:  28 "What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.'  30 "Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. Not as many people saw the young lad who did not show up for the work.  What they do remember is the father who has been shamed in the community.  For Matthews’s church, these are the ones who have been there all along.  They know church inside and out and have this unspoken concept that they know it all.  Adult Bible Study is no longer important and they drop the kids off at the door for their Sunday School.  Confirmation was boring for them so they don’t make their children go.  Just a little pushback is all it takes for them to cave.  They want to make the decisions and choose the music to fit their comfort zone and mission is something they send money to but not something they do.  Church has become a social club with religious language in which they pull all the purse strings.  It has ceased being church, it has ceased being the body of Christ.