Life is messy. True of all life, it is simply the nature of being… Messy…. been around any two year-olds lately? How about teenagers? TheBOD is no exception. We’ve experienced what I would describe as normal growing pains associated with any living organism. Sometimes frustrations flare-up as we find our way through the early stages of being a new church. Typically the frustrations are simply symptoms of something else. My background leads me to look through symptoms for an underlying cause. Everybody can see a problem… few provide meaningful solutions. Most want to treat the headache. I want to know what caused the headache and eliminate the cause for the future. Not just take Tylenol to get rid of it. Sorry for the medical analogy… that’s just how my brain works.
What has caught me a little off guard is the idea that seeing people come to Christ, marriages healed, lives changed, people growing in their faith, addictions gone, real discipleship taking place, etc, etc, etc…. all of which we are experiencing, doesn’t seem to be enough to keep frustrations at bay. It’s like we think those are good things but…. I’m not sure we truly appreciate that this type of life-change IS THE THING. This type of life-change indicates that people are on the path to becoming fully devoted followers of Christ. What this lack of understanding tells me is that I have not done enough in defining the win. I think we have done a decent job in defining what the church is, but maybe not what a disciple looks like and how it all works together.
So it’s probably time to help connect the dots a little better. My plan is to keep things simple, but be more intentional in teaching how LOVE GOD, LOVE OTHERS, AND SERVE THE WORLD applies to the life of a disciple. In a nutshell, Love God and Love Others is the story. It’s Great Commission living and serving spills out from these two things. I want to ask you to, at every opportunity, help me through prayer, study and communication to others what loving God and loving others looks like in the life of a Christ follower. I’m asking us to work to remind ourselves and others that it has nothing to do with buildings, numbers, personal benefits or agendas, accomplishing goals and growing a church. That the things we do, or plan, are simply tools to enable us to better Love God and Love Others. This is the difference between DOING church and BEING the church. Everything we undertake needs to be covered in love and grace. It’s about people…. lives…. eternity… God’s glory…. and delighting in Him. Anything, including our version of doing church, we try to substitute for the real thing is a ridiculously poor imitation for the true life of a disciple of Christ and will leave us disappointed.
I’m committing to do everything I can to lead in this effort of spiritual growth. I’m asking you to join me. As leaders you need to understand that we will grow weary of hearing and talking about these ideas long before most people are beginning to get it. We need to understand that as God brings new people to our gathering we will need to continue to help them understand and embrace the life of following Christ, being fully devoted. We need to understand that it is a process, not something we can do for a couple of months and then put in the closet. It is who we are and will need to be continually nurtured. Diligent, intentional creation of a culture built on Biblical principles is hard work. That is the call. That is the challenge. That is the church. Messy, messy, messy…. Embrace the mess, because it indicates life.
Johnny