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wings
Heads in the beds,
people in the pews
I wonder how many of you have seen the Holiday Inn Express commercials, featuring people who have extraordinary powers after spending a night in a Holiday Inn. I always chuckle at the good-natured humor in those commercials.
Holiday Inn Express' advertising message is that a good night's rest in their rooms will change you for the better. The customers in the commercials are changed to become smarter or technologically gifted. They wake up to become medical geniuses or nuclear scientists.
The advertisers are in effect saying, "Sleep in a Holiday Inn Express, and it will make a tremendously positive change in you." That message is so close to a gospel song we sang years ago in my home church. The title of the song was, "I'm Not the Same Anymore." It's the same claim made in the old revival song, "Since Jesus Came Into My Heart." Some of you may recall singing this song in revival meetings, camp meetings, or at church. The words to the first verse are:
What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought / Since Jesus came into my heart!
I have light in my soul for which long I had sought,/ Since Jesus came into my heart!
Of course, the Holiday Inn Express folks are not really selling change; they're selling "heads in the beds." And yet, the company's leaders realize that many people really do wish that a good night's sleep could make a difference in their lives ñ because they don't like who they've become nor what they're doing. The advertisers know that people want to improve, and they want to sell them hope.
You know, this all sounds a whole lot like the "Good News" of transformation that Jesus offers.
Holiday Inn Express may have thousands of hotels, but in Holston Conference, we have at least 915 places where people can actually go for change. In some of those 915 places, we offer multiple opportunities for people to "check in." But sadly, sometimes we are not as excited about offering our opportunities for change as Holiday Inn Express is about getting people to sleep in their hotels.
September is Open House Month in Holston Conference. I wonder what would happen if we advertised that one hour spent in our house could be the vehicle for change. If we really prepared ourselves to be vessels for the Holy Spirit to use for change, perhaps our Sunday-morning guests would be asked on Monday, "What's different about you today?"
And maybe that person would answer, "Oh, I worshipped at the United Methodist Church on Sunday!"
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Bishop James Swanson
Resident Bishop
Cover Stories:
Clergy Sabbath: It's not mandatory
and
Pastor denies membership to homosexual
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