Tag Archives: congregation

Look in the mirror. Own up to what you see.

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If I want my doctor to help me with something, I have to tell her what’s wrong.  I have to reveal things about myself that might not be so pretty.  If I want a counselor to assist me in regaining wholeness, I have to be gut honest about myself, my family, my past, whatever, in order for him/her to get to the root of the problem and show me how to resolve it.  Without a willingness to be fully open or totally honest, I’ll just be getting band-aid solutions that don’t fully get rid of the real problem.  The symptoms might go away for a while but they’ll be back, and maybe even more ferociously than before.

It’s not easy.  Probably the biggest obstacle is my pride.  Why would I want to show someone else something ugly or flawed about myself?  How embarrassing.  What will they think?   How will I feel about myself?   Who wants to admit a glaring weakness to someone else and show that I don’t have it all together?  I might even appear hypocritical.

This weekend our church is a part of a consultation to help us evaluate ourselves and grow.  One step toward growth, integrity, and becoming more like Jesus is being willing to see truthfully who we are and/or what we have become, admit it is true and be ready to submit to God’s molding, reshaping, and pruning.  It’s as if He’s holding up his big supernatural mirror and we’re seeing the big picture like we haven’t before.  John and I met with the consultation team last night.  Before we went in I felt a little like I did back in school days thinking I had to see the principal. Continue reading →

It’s Still Good

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I’ve been thinking a LOT about the nature of the Church in America, how we do some things right, how we do some things seemingly wrong, how we miss the mark so often by getting distracted and becoming like social clubs, how it seems we’ve failed in being life-saving stations.  I’ve swayed so far on the continuum that I’ve wondered the purpose of meeting every Sunday to sing songs and have “church.”  What is the point in all this that we do week after week, God?  Is this accomplishing your mission for us??

This morning God showed me that it’s still good.  Meeting for worship with other believers, other “sheep” is still a very good thing.  There’s nothing wrong with it – it’s just not all there is.  When we meet we encourage one another, we get help shifting our focus back to God, we hear from God’s Word, we gain new insights and direction, we hopefully hear testimonies of how God is at work in other people’s lives, we celebrate how good God is together, we sing, we pray together.  It’s still good!   As a church we just can’t stop or stay there.  Our mission is to get out and share hope and Jesus with everyone who hasn’t believed yet.  How do we do that?  That’s the million dollar question! Continue reading →