Preparing Our Hearts for What?

Some of my thinking is changing.  I guess, since none of us are perfect, we should all have a continual progression of thinking.

Maybe it’s a little thing, or a big thing.

We say this in church, but do we ever question it?  We address our time of worship and ascribe to it the purpose of ‘preparing our hearts to receive the Word’.  It struck me today.  "Wait a minute!  We worship God to worship God.  It is not a device of mental preparation." 

I’m not going to totally discount the value that worship might have for me personally.  The value is a reality, however, I’m not going to focus on it.  My motivation for worship should never be, in any way, personally beneficial.  Allow that to be a side issue.  Priority number one:  God is worshipped because God should be worshipped.

As  I continued to think about it, I found the opposite to bear more truth.  Learning the Word should prepare our hearts to worship.  That sounds way more appropriate to me.

This is what I’m thinking about right now.

Summing Up Vision

Most folks in the church don’t really understand what is meant by ‘vision’.  Very simply stated, vision is the act of seeing.  If you can open your eyes and see the; walls, windows and humans around you, you have vision.  If you open your eyes and see Bigfoot in a tu tu, then you don’t have vision.

The easy part of vision involves seeing what ‘is’.

The hard part of vision involves seeing what ‘is yet to be’.

The hard part of vision can be broken down into two segments.  1.-  Walt Disney Vision  2.- Nehemiah Vision

With A Crack Of The Whip…

… the witch hunt is on.  That’s what Ojo Taylor said on his solo album Relative.  What was he talking about?  I’ll be honest with you.  I can’t remember.  But, if I had put those lyrics in a song, it would be a sarcastic reference to the witch hunt trials that many of today’s “discernment ministries” (I use the term “ministry” loosely) are conducting.

The Vision.

 

Here in lies an extensive reasoning and definition of my vision for Calvary Chapel of Charlottesville. It’s long. I shared the summary yesterday to the congregation (1/27/08).. but here’s the big picture – in print.

Intro:

For nearly five years now, I’ve been wrestling with a little three word phrase:

“church without walls”

The article I read this in never once gave any form of definition. I couldn’t help but ask, “What is a church without walls?” Here it is, nearly five years later and I’m still asking this nagging question. Slowly, piece by piece, I believe the Lord has begun to show me what the church without walls is. With equal importance, I’m also beginning to see why the church without walls is important.

The Problem:

The church has mis-communicated itself to society.

When Vision Doesn’t Fit

What do you do when vision bounces off the walls of your universe?  What do you do when your ideas and your concepts don’t fit into the established system?

I have, what I consider to be a transforming idea for “church” ministry.  Actually, it’s one of the few times that I have tremendous confidence that God has brought this vision to my heart.  Since I’m not the most ambitious person in the world, I know that something bigger than me has caused this thing to resound for so long.  It’s been about 5 years.  This year, it appears as if the vision has all come together.  I’ve laid it out there, fully explained it, tested every facet of it and have actually visualized it as being a reality.  Now, don’t fuss at me for being all new-agish on the visualization thing.  Reality is… it seems so real, that I can actually see it as if it’s already happened.

communicate church

This topic has been on my mind a lot lately.  What kind of message is the church communicating to the world around it.  I’m not talking about the words that Church uses or the propaganda it pushes.  I’m just talking about the impressions that people receive as they consider “who” and “what” the church is.  We as individuals are called to live in a manner that is above reproach… avoiding the appearance of evil… not providing opportunity for accusation…  To do this, we need to present humility to the world around us.  To do this, we need to be sensitive to people’s preconceived notions.  To do this we need to be cautious with any deed or word that might be considered questionable.  Well, if we as individuals are striving to communicate love in every way, shouldn’t the church as a corporate body of believers do the same thing?  How do we do that?
Sunday morning is a great time and should always be done with excellence.  However, if we want to communicate “who” and “what” we are, we need to give the world an opportunity to interact with us on Monday – Saturday also.  The outward display of love by the church should be the grandest impression that onlookers gain.  Let Sunday morning be a side-note in comparison to the activities we engage in during the week.  Think about it:  Sunday morning is (for the most part) for the believers.  That’s our chance to get together, worship and study.  The stuff we do for ourselves (like Sunday morning), shouldn’t be our main communication to those who are on the outside.  To them, we should be a people who walk in love and humility in the “real world” of day to day living.  On a side note, we also get together and celebrate on Sundays.
The issue of communication should be a huge factor to consider when we strategize and plan.
I have tons more to say on this topic.  It will run in and out of many future threads as it has on many past threads from www.simplemindedpreacher.com   It might even end up being a book.

Powered by ScribeFire.