We are always looking for the silver bullet, that magical solution that will cut through even the most complex situations and solve our problems. Christians can often be guilty of this, especially when talking about how to turn around a declining church.

You’ve heard the candidates:

• We need to be more progressive. We need to stamp out liberalism.
• We need to use instruments in our worship. We need to stop emotionalism in our worship.
• We have to let women do more in our assemblies. We need to get our men more involved in our assemblies.
• We need to hold on to our traditions. We need to let go of our traditions.
• The answer is megachurches. Or house churches. Or cell-based churches.
• The answer is planting new churches across ethnic and racial lines. The answer is making existing churches more diverse.
• The answer is revitalizing inner city churches. The answer is strengthening urban churches.
• The answer is none of the above. Or all of the above.

It’s enough to make your head spin. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to figure out which bullet out of this huge box of ammunition is the one made of silver. But I think we’re looking for something that doesn’t exist.

At some point, we have to stop and ask God how we can best serve right where we are. I guess that we need a few people trying to figure out the best solutions for everyone everywhere, but I know that we need more people focused on what is right in front of them.

We need to be serving people. We need to be telling people about Jesus. We need to be desperately pursuing holiness. We need to be more like God. We need to spend less time pontificating and more time practicing what we believe.

We need to decide to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)

Seems like a good place to start.