This is in reply to Muddy's comments. I always appreciate her thoughts and they make me think. You should probably read them before reading this.
I once went down on the path of just worrying about myself and my faith. I didn't like it there. It seemed extremely selfish to me. I worried about my own personal spiritual life and ignored teaching anyone anything. Then I was asked to start teaching Sunday School at the church I was remaining incognito at. Then God called me from there to plant the churches in Lansing. I thing remaing focused only on myself isn't what I am called to. As always, I could be wrong.
I am trying to plant a church here and not just have critical thoughts about church. I am looking for people to work alongside of. Paul travelled with his fellow planters. I have to find them. Progress seems to be happening, but it isn't happening overnight. And that frustrates me because patience isn't my #1 spiritual gift.
I am not in a position in the church I attend to change things. I might teach and preach. I've thought about just focusing on ministering to the high schoolers and leaving my life at that, but that isn't all that fulfilling to me. I don't think it is what I am called to. I want to be in a church that uses their resources to do God's will and that is the only thing they focus on. I firmly believe that God wants every church to be that way. What good would any of our beliefs be if we didn't share them and hoarded them to ourselves. Beliefs are free to give. The giver doesn't lose anything. People can reject my beliefs or use them to change their church and their lives.
I know you can't see the actions of my life on a blog, but I do try to be as loving as possible to those around me. I don't want to list the loving things I do, but I assure you that my ranting isn't the only thing I try to do with my faith.
I believe in the church and not an individual Christianity. That is why I believe it is important for the church to be what God wants it to be. And in the majority of the churches I see, they need a major overhaul. I bet if every person in America that believed in individual Christianity stood up to fix the church, many of the churches would be changed and God would be glorified. Our faith is not just for ourselves.
I believe in accepting sinners, including redeemed sinners, where they are at. We are going to fail. All I'm asking is that we quit living expecting ourselves to fail. We start living as if we can reach the goal of what God wants us to be, as individuals and as a church.
I've been in the leadership of multiple churches and I know the simple, yet difficult, decisions that would need to be made in order to straighten a strayed ship. The people just have to want one thing and one thing only, to do the will of God. Once we all agree on that we can disagree on other things. That is fine. But we need to all be focused on the church doing the will of God.
Many of the things I talk about probably don't apply to people outside of leadership. However, a lot of the people that visit here and comment are in positions to change thigns. Some are pastors. Some are leaders. Some are in house churches. All those people are in decision making capacities at their churches. The decision to make a church loving in its gathering depends upon them. The decision to make a church an educational outpost depends on them. They are the ones I hope will institute changes in their church.
So sometimes I am talking about something I am struggling with and trying to work through those thoughts. Other times I am trying to convince my friends and strangers in power to make the church into the loving kingdom it is destined to be. Maybe I'm mistaken in thinking that someone needs to step up and say something. Or maybe I'm just mistaken in making that someone me. I'm sure you expect your pastor to think about what is best for the church. You might not have to worry about it, but someone has to focus on it.
I will try to share more about the good stories in my life; however, most of the time I feel they violate people's privacy. And it would make it even worse if that someone came here and read about me talking about them. I share the stories when I can, but most of the time I feel it isn't appropriate.
Anyway, I do love your comments, Muddy. They get me to think. And I'm pretty sure I am a better person because of them.
On another note, I've been wanting to ask for everyone's prayers. There is a 14-year old boy I know who is going through a tough time going to school. He is having some mental paranoia about the whole thing and isn't able to go any more. I told his parents I would homeschool him while at they were at work if they needed. They appear to be taking me up on that offer. I'm looking forward to it, but it is a big task. I also haven't talked to my dad, the owner of my store, about it yet, so I hope that that goes well. I also hope he doesn't read about it here first, but he is also not a regular reader.
Watch out for the potholes.
I once went down on the path of just worrying about myself and my faith. I didn't like it there. It seemed extremely selfish to me. I worried about my own personal spiritual life and ignored teaching anyone anything. Then I was asked to start teaching Sunday School at the church I was remaining incognito at. Then God called me from there to plant the churches in Lansing. I thing remaing focused only on myself isn't what I am called to. As always, I could be wrong.
I am trying to plant a church here and not just have critical thoughts about church. I am looking for people to work alongside of. Paul travelled with his fellow planters. I have to find them. Progress seems to be happening, but it isn't happening overnight. And that frustrates me because patience isn't my #1 spiritual gift.
I am not in a position in the church I attend to change things. I might teach and preach. I've thought about just focusing on ministering to the high schoolers and leaving my life at that, but that isn't all that fulfilling to me. I don't think it is what I am called to. I want to be in a church that uses their resources to do God's will and that is the only thing they focus on. I firmly believe that God wants every church to be that way. What good would any of our beliefs be if we didn't share them and hoarded them to ourselves. Beliefs are free to give. The giver doesn't lose anything. People can reject my beliefs or use them to change their church and their lives.
I know you can't see the actions of my life on a blog, but I do try to be as loving as possible to those around me. I don't want to list the loving things I do, but I assure you that my ranting isn't the only thing I try to do with my faith.
I believe in the church and not an individual Christianity. That is why I believe it is important for the church to be what God wants it to be. And in the majority of the churches I see, they need a major overhaul. I bet if every person in America that believed in individual Christianity stood up to fix the church, many of the churches would be changed and God would be glorified. Our faith is not just for ourselves.
I believe in accepting sinners, including redeemed sinners, where they are at. We are going to fail. All I'm asking is that we quit living expecting ourselves to fail. We start living as if we can reach the goal of what God wants us to be, as individuals and as a church.
I've been in the leadership of multiple churches and I know the simple, yet difficult, decisions that would need to be made in order to straighten a strayed ship. The people just have to want one thing and one thing only, to do the will of God. Once we all agree on that we can disagree on other things. That is fine. But we need to all be focused on the church doing the will of God.
Many of the things I talk about probably don't apply to people outside of leadership. However, a lot of the people that visit here and comment are in positions to change thigns. Some are pastors. Some are leaders. Some are in house churches. All those people are in decision making capacities at their churches. The decision to make a church loving in its gathering depends upon them. The decision to make a church an educational outpost depends on them. They are the ones I hope will institute changes in their church.
So sometimes I am talking about something I am struggling with and trying to work through those thoughts. Other times I am trying to convince my friends and strangers in power to make the church into the loving kingdom it is destined to be. Maybe I'm mistaken in thinking that someone needs to step up and say something. Or maybe I'm just mistaken in making that someone me. I'm sure you expect your pastor to think about what is best for the church. You might not have to worry about it, but someone has to focus on it.
I will try to share more about the good stories in my life; however, most of the time I feel they violate people's privacy. And it would make it even worse if that someone came here and read about me talking about them. I share the stories when I can, but most of the time I feel it isn't appropriate.
Anyway, I do love your comments, Muddy. They get me to think. And I'm pretty sure I am a better person because of them.
On another note, I've been wanting to ask for everyone's prayers. There is a 14-year old boy I know who is going through a tough time going to school. He is having some mental paranoia about the whole thing and isn't able to go any more. I told his parents I would homeschool him while at they were at work if they needed. They appear to be taking me up on that offer. I'm looking forward to it, but it is a big task. I also haven't talked to my dad, the owner of my store, about it yet, so I hope that that goes well. I also hope he doesn't read about it here first, but he is also not a regular reader.
Watch out for the potholes.
