GracePointe Church of Christ in Elizabethtown, PA

Deep Joy:

And that is more realistic of our world and of God’s people isn’t it?  We don’t get very far into the biblical story and we find out that the world is full of evil, so much so that God grieves in his heart that he made human beings.  God decides to send the cleansing waters of a flood to wash creation pure and start over, that is reclaim the world, and use Noah’s family as a faithful remnant to once again be fruitful and multiply… 

In the book of Jeremiah, particularly chapter 6, God pronounces judgment on his people because they have not turned out the way God wanted, they have been marred, spoiled, and God finds himself struggling against them instead of creating something beautiful, something extraordinary of them.  God was trying to shape them, but Judah is corrupt…

The reality of our situation is that we are spoiled vessels, and we have been marred or corrupted.  Now, it doesn't have to be our fault, but sometimes it is.  What I mean is that sometimes our decisions and our sins have reaped havoc on our lives, and we can only blame ourselves for the struggling God has to do to get us back centered and in his hands.  

Yet, other times it is an outside force that has marred us, hurt us, oppressed us, and we had this big dream about what we were going to be and we know that it just isn’t possible now.  We end up being a vessel that we are not happy with - we are broken, wounded, out of balance people. 

I believe that in our desire to be a Biblical church, we can lose the desire to be a spirit-led church.  And in our desire for perfectionism, we lose our desire for grace and mercy.  And it concerns me when a church wants to reach out to a community and cannot seem to determine what it is that we need to say “I’m sorry” for and what it is that we will stand firm upon…

The flip side of a “perfection movement” that fixes our gaze on the past and asked us to fearfully approach the Bible to “get it right” is a “progressive movement” that fixes our gaze on the future and asks us to approach the Bible as a help for how we respond to the presence of God, the leading of the Spirit, and the reign of Christ in our context, among this community, in this culture.

Why do I say…just run a play.  

Paul says this to the Church in Corinth:

And I tell each one of you:

We can’t go into the game confused…

The reason I want us to be a church that is "unforgettable" in this community is not so that we have more events and you go home tired and worn out, although I can tell you that some of the most spiritually influential weeks of my life have left me that way. But, ultimately it is because of the impact our community engagement will have on your growth into Jesus. It is because I know that there are relationships that you have yet to make that will impact your faith in God.  It is because of what I want for you, and not from you, that we need to be a part of an “unforgettable” Church.  It is because of what GOD wants for you, and not from you, that we strive to become this!