Petoskey United Methodist Church
Weekly Devotional

April 2, 2008
By Earl Raynal

A Season of Dying

Years ago, I had the occasion to visit Ginghamsburg Church near Dayton Ohio. The pastor there, Mike Slaughter, had a mantra of “Dead, Buried, Out of the Way” which he used to describe members of the church who had already committed themselves to Christ.  The idea was jarring to me, and I didn’t fully grasp its meaning at the time.  I have come to understand better that he was describing man and the two states we can occupy here on earth;  alive but “dead”, and “dead” but alive.  Those who are alive but “dead” don’t have Christ in their lives, haven’t surrendered to Christ, haven’t given up themselves to Christ.  Those who are dead to self and have committed themselves to live like Christ have become alive through Him. 

In this way, Slaughter made it clear to the members of the Ginghamsburg church (and its visitors) that he viewed his biggest responsibility, to convert non-believers into believers in Christ.  The believing members had crossed the bridge from death to life.  And, it was clear from the ministries of the church and the Christ centered activities going on within it that the church as a whole was successful in this mantra;  to bring more non-believers to the place in their life where they would die to sin and instead live a life in the resurrected Christ.

In Paul’s words from his letter to the Romans (6:6-7);

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

Death has surrounded our church community lately.  The recent physical deaths of some beloved members of our church and my confrontation with my own father’s mortality have got me thinking about “dying to Christ” more closely.  These events, together with the Easter Season and its reminder of the greatest sacrifice ever made by a man, have led me to make the commitment to move beyond my earthly self-centeredness, to truly commit to a life without sin (though I know that when I fall short Jesus will be there with a helping hand) and to get on with the work of leading others to Christ in earnest and become fully alive in Him.

The first priority of this church is to provide leadership towards these same goals for ourselves and for our church body, now and in the coming years.  Our limited time here on earth is too precious to make anything else a higher priority.

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