This one is just a bunch of random thoughts, jumbling around in my head.
bear with me, I think I'm going somewhere with this.
I'm coming up on three weeks at Anderson (that flew by, right?!). Since I've been here, I've taken 48 pages of notes. I know I shouldn't boast in numbers like that, but I just need to point out that the King of kings is doing something HUGE in this place.
I've learned a lot about the Church since I've been here. One thing that I've definitely learned is that my church, NewSpring, isn't going to be the church for everyone.
So it's hard for me to grasp that everyone doesn't love NewSpring like I do. It's hard to understand that my church isn't the church for everyone.
But I think that if the church is suiting God's call, then so be it. End of story. Case closed. That's it. That's Jesus.
I watched the sermon from NewSpring from last week online, since I was home for Labor Day, at midnight last night. And Perry talked about how we cannot separate Jesus from the church.
So maybe this post is for me to preach to some people, maybe it's for me to learn something, I don't know.
But I need to get real for a moment.
When we start to seperate Jesus from the church, we lose sight of the purpose of the church. I think our society gets so distracted in making sure that the church fits our individual needs that we forget that the church is there for His kingdom. Stay with me for a moment.
The church isn't about us. It has never been about us.
church-noun-
1. a building for public Christian worship.
2. public worship of God or a religious service in such a building: to attend church regularly.
3. (sometimes initial capital letter) the whole body of Christian believers; Christendom.
4. (sometimes initial capital letter) any division of this body professing the same creed and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority; a Christian denomination: the Methodist Church.
5. that part of the whole Christian body, or of a particular denomination, belonging to the same city, country, nation, etc.
dictionary.com definition of "church"
I think we've moved that definition into something more like a place where we can be fed. I think it's okay to go to the church hungry and ready to receive His word, but I think it becomes a problem when we make the church our only feeding. We forget that the church is to feed others.
We get so caught up in the church suiting our needs and satisfying us that we lose sight of the Gospel.
If we want to see God move in huge ways, then now is the time. We have to show this world all that God is and all that He has to offer.
If we want radical change, we have to be the change. We have to stop praying for God to move while we sit back and wait on Him to act. He's waiting on us. The next move is ours, not His. He made His move when He sent His son to the cross.
God is begging us to move. Static lives don't create growth. We beg to grow but we try to stay where we are to make that happen. It doesn't work like that.
"Why would God trust us with what is next if we won't be obedient to what is now?" - Perry Noble
"Fill our hearts with Your compassion. Let our love be active here." - Elevation Worship
Colossians 1:18-And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Luke 6:46-“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
Prayer Time: Dear God, I pray that we take note of what you called the church to be. I pray that we stop being selfish about what we call the church to be and we come back to the heart of Your church. I pray that we stop making the church out as a building that is to stay confined to a building and suit our needs, but that the church would explode and grow beyond what we would call comfortable to suit the needs of a hungry world. I pray that we take heart in all the your are and all that You've promised so that we don't doubt you, God. We thank you for all that You are and for the church. For it's in Your holy and precious name we pray, amen.
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