Monday, August 31, 2009
"You Can't Believe What You Don't"
These are interesting thoughts on belief and unbelief. Is it true what he says that you can't believe what you don't? If so, this must inform how we talk about faith and our beliefs. Addressing even the hard issues of our faith seems to be a better approaching than sweeping them under the rug and hoping others don't notice. If we aren't addressing the hard issues, it is because we ourselves doubt on some level that the object of our faith can withstand the questioning. A genuine search for truth asks the hard questions, even after having found what he/she believes to be the source of that truth. If we ever stop asking the hard questions, we either prove ourselves lazy or afraid of being wrong and unwilling to change. We must look into the face of our own doubts, if we're ever going to honestly walk with others through theirs.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
My Dream Church
Jason McAnally
April, 08
My Dream Church
My dream church is a church that loves God and loves others better than themselves, a people who are passionate to know the heart of God and have the heart of God for others. This will be a church for real seekers, and prayer will be at the heart of this body. Twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year people of this church will be actively pursuing God’s heart and being empowered by God to work towards the fulfillment of His mission in the world, as only God can empower us to complete His mission. Their food will be every word that proceeds from the Father’s mouth, so they seek to hear Him through His Word and by His Spirit.
The church will be missional, and the mission of this church will be the mission of God—to restore all of creation to right relationship with the Creator and Father of all things. This will be a church that values all people and all things and is able to see the image of God in all people and the hand of God at work in all of creation. This will be a people who are fervently seeking both personal and social holiness, a people who recognize the needs of others as being their own needs and are willing to sacrifice their own wellbeing for that of their friends. They believe that all they have and all they are are God’s, and so live graciously, giving generously from the recognition that God has withheld no good gift from them. They understand that they own nothing. Instead they are stewarding God’s own resources so that He can do with them as He pleases. And He is pleased. They give all they have to know God and make Him known while believing there is no cost in this way of living.
This world is not their home. They live with heaven always in mind, but not in such a way that is escapist or leads to a lack of involvement with things on earth. Instead, they are heaven-minded in such a way that is always seeking to bring heaven to earth. The kingdom of God is coming, and it is coming in the lives of this people and the people around them as they usher God’s salvation to their homes and schools and places of work. They serve as priests to those who need to meet God and prophets to those who need to hear from God. They are teachers to all who listen and watch. They are servants to all people in all situations. They fear God, but only God. Death has lost its sting in their lives, therefore they walk in boldness living and proclaiming in freedom and joy the unadulterated good news to all who have ears.
My dream church is a church where the poor, the homeless, those who have nothing material to offer, are considered honored guests and treated as such, a church who not only reaches out to the hurting, the addicted, the oppressed, the unwanted, even the hated but who also welcomes them to be a part of their body. In this church there is no male or female, black or white or Hispanic or Asian, no rich or poor but only people created in the image of God, sons and daughters of the Most High God. I want to be a part of a church where people are not just tolerated but are loved and accepted for who they are and strengthened and encouraged to be who they were created to be.
Discipleship is not a program but simply a word to describe this type of God-centered lifestyle. Mission is not a part of the activity of this body but the driving force behind all other activities. This mission is birthed out of worship, love for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that inspires love for all people.
My dream church is a church full of laughter and hope, a place full of grace where people are allowed and even expected to take risks, including the risk of vulnerability with one other. This is a church that is united as one, even as God Himself is one, for this pleases God, and God’s pleasure is their greatest desire.
My role within this church would be to lead and to serve, to be the first to fast and the first to pray and the first to give. I will preach and teach and lead as God the Holy Spirit leads me, but I fully expect that God will also speak to and through other members in this body. I hope to be only the first among many who are also seeking God and His will and vision for this community of believers. This is my dream church.
April, 08
My Dream Church
My dream church is a church that loves God and loves others better than themselves, a people who are passionate to know the heart of God and have the heart of God for others. This will be a church for real seekers, and prayer will be at the heart of this body. Twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year people of this church will be actively pursuing God’s heart and being empowered by God to work towards the fulfillment of His mission in the world, as only God can empower us to complete His mission. Their food will be every word that proceeds from the Father’s mouth, so they seek to hear Him through His Word and by His Spirit.
The church will be missional, and the mission of this church will be the mission of God—to restore all of creation to right relationship with the Creator and Father of all things. This will be a church that values all people and all things and is able to see the image of God in all people and the hand of God at work in all of creation. This will be a people who are fervently seeking both personal and social holiness, a people who recognize the needs of others as being their own needs and are willing to sacrifice their own wellbeing for that of their friends. They believe that all they have and all they are are God’s, and so live graciously, giving generously from the recognition that God has withheld no good gift from them. They understand that they own nothing. Instead they are stewarding God’s own resources so that He can do with them as He pleases. And He is pleased. They give all they have to know God and make Him known while believing there is no cost in this way of living.
This world is not their home. They live with heaven always in mind, but not in such a way that is escapist or leads to a lack of involvement with things on earth. Instead, they are heaven-minded in such a way that is always seeking to bring heaven to earth. The kingdom of God is coming, and it is coming in the lives of this people and the people around them as they usher God’s salvation to their homes and schools and places of work. They serve as priests to those who need to meet God and prophets to those who need to hear from God. They are teachers to all who listen and watch. They are servants to all people in all situations. They fear God, but only God. Death has lost its sting in their lives, therefore they walk in boldness living and proclaiming in freedom and joy the unadulterated good news to all who have ears.
My dream church is a church where the poor, the homeless, those who have nothing material to offer, are considered honored guests and treated as such, a church who not only reaches out to the hurting, the addicted, the oppressed, the unwanted, even the hated but who also welcomes them to be a part of their body. In this church there is no male or female, black or white or Hispanic or Asian, no rich or poor but only people created in the image of God, sons and daughters of the Most High God. I want to be a part of a church where people are not just tolerated but are loved and accepted for who they are and strengthened and encouraged to be who they were created to be.
Discipleship is not a program but simply a word to describe this type of God-centered lifestyle. Mission is not a part of the activity of this body but the driving force behind all other activities. This mission is birthed out of worship, love for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that inspires love for all people.
My dream church is a church full of laughter and hope, a place full of grace where people are allowed and even expected to take risks, including the risk of vulnerability with one other. This is a church that is united as one, even as God Himself is one, for this pleases God, and God’s pleasure is their greatest desire.
My role within this church would be to lead and to serve, to be the first to fast and the first to pray and the first to give. I will preach and teach and lead as God the Holy Spirit leads me, but I fully expect that God will also speak to and through other members in this body. I hope to be only the first among many who are also seeking God and His will and vision for this community of believers. This is my dream church.
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