Ok, I try my best not to include entries that are "solely" related to my field of ministry. Why? Because the average person, heck even the average Christian, could care less. But I am going to break that rule, but I still think the final point may resonate with most people.

About a month ago, Allen got the privilege to lead the opening prayer at the esteemed Talladega NASCAR race. This entitled him to four tickets in President's row. Now I was not apart of the initial four, but the race got rained out, so he took me the second day.

Now if you have never been to a NASCAR race, it is crazy. Usually their are somewhere between 100,000 to 200,000 people located in a place that typically might have, ohh I don't know, 100 cars the entire day. Needless to say, traffic is always "interesting" at these races and it is just the nature of the beast.

However, Talladega is a "smart" place in the way they direct traffic, turning basically a back country road into a good thoroughfare. That is except on the make-up day after a rain cancellation.

Having not been their the first day, I can only take Allen's opinion on this. But as we were approaching the speedway, we realized traffic was not running smoothly. At one point, they actually were trying to take cars the other direction (out of the track area) while 200,000 people tried to get in. It was at this time that Allen made the comment, "I can't believe they are working this hard to let these 10 cars out when so many people are trying to get in." To follow up, I commented back, "yeah...it reminds me of ministry."

Many of us in ministry often forget why we entered ministry after being in it for only a short while. We begin to spend more of our time, efforts, and money concerned about "keeping" those that are already in, while neglecting to truly work at getting all the people "needing" in through the gates. We love comfort, more than we love people. We love consistency, more than we love life change. To that I say, we must not follow the example of NASCAR, and we should focus more on getting the masses who want in, inside the gates (both at the race and in heaven).