April 3, 2010

Don't Wake Me Up (Part 2)

If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and completely without limits, then why do we limit our dreams and our visions for the church today? God is looking for leaders and churches who will not limit what He can do or what He is willing to do to the size of a shoe box.

The church has unlimited potential, so don't wake me up until I see some of that potential in action.

I'm dreaming of a church...

• Where the real issues of life and culture are seriously addressed, where answers from God's Word are applied to questions people are asking.
• Where friendships and relationships are models of acceptance, love, and forgiveness.
• Where God's people are the church in practice as well as in word.
• That is constantly and consistently reaching out to those who need to know the joy of Christ, not as a project or a ministry, but because we really do love our neighbors.
• Where we can serve as a spiritual trauma center where the hurting and broken can come and be changed forever.
• That practices The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-39), The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), and The Great Commitment (John 10:10).
• That is willing to go against the grain of religion and traditions of men to meet the needs of our day.
• Where God is so active and alive in the worship service that people in the community will come to see what God is doing.

Remember! The dream can become a reality. That is my hope! That is my prayer! Not only for SouthPointe Church, but for your church as well.

It is sad today that many of our churches are dead or are dying, and they are proud of it. It is sad that many churches are a far cry from what the church should be. Preaching is boring and unrelated to real life and preachers are answering questions no one is asking.

The worship seems to be on auto-pilot dominated by ritual, formality, and traditions of men. Anything outside of the norm rarely happens. If it did, it would probably scare the living daylights out of most church members. Religious people seem to be content with the statue-quo. The miraculous seems to be an out-dated notion.

Most churches today have become isolationists, wondering why it is ignored in the community and unappreciated.

I wonder... How would we feel in an Acts 2 kind of church? The church does belong to God. It was His plan. He is the one building it (Matthew 16:18).

Some people say it won't work today. I don't believe that for a minute. God wants His church not just to survive, but to flourish. After all, He has a greater investment in it than we do.

Dick Alexander talked about the church meeting the 'raw' needs of this culture..."Raw. It's a word I have never liked. Raw carrots. Too hard; raw oysters, too slimy; raw humor, too dirty; raw skin, too painful. In fact, raw applied to anything human sounds painful. But we live in a world of raw human need. It's all around us. With the raw human need touching everyone one of us every day, the church can scarcely afford business as usual. In practice, many churches view their mission as holding services, satisfying the members, and doing good here and there. Such churches are on the way out. Within a few years, they will be dinosaurs, not because their doctrine is bad, but because they have lost their mission. Only churches serious about reaching and rescuing the helpless and the hurting will survive and make a difference in the real world."

What a time for the church to be the church. There has never been an opportunity in history like this. Let the church 'shine as the stars of the universe' as Paul put it in Philippians 2:15 "holding out the Word of life".

That makes me want to keep on dreaming... Sweet dreams!

Pastor Ron McCurry

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April 1, 2010

Don't Wake Me Up! (Part 1)

One of the great things to me about sleeping is that sometimes I find myself dreaming. What makes it even better is when you wake up the next morning and remember every detail of the dream throughout the day.

I must add that sometimes that does freak me out totally!

When it comes to the church of Jesus Christ, I find myself dreaming all the time... even during the day time.

The problem is that people try to wake me up all the time by telling me that the best days of the church have passed us by or that God is really not doing anything in these modern days because we all are just a bunch of compromisers who have not held on to certain finer points of the old paths.

What they mean is that we don't do church like it is supposed to be done (like it was done 50 or 100 years ago) whatever that means. Call me whatever you want to call me, but I firmly believe we are living in the greatest days possible relating to the church. This is our greatest time! This is our greatest hour. It is time for the church to be the church, and not apologize for it.

The last time I checked the Word of God, it said that God hasn't changed at all. He is still God. He is still sovereign, and He is still on His throne.

The problem in our churches is that we teach that truth, we preach that truth, we tell our people to embrace that truth, but we live and act as if it is not the truth.

When it comes to the church, I am dreaming, so please don't wake me up!

I'm dreaming of a church...

• That believes that God's plans for the church and for us are bigger than we could possibly imagine.
• That believes that the church can change a town, a city, a region, and the world.
• That believes the gospel of Jesus Christ is sufficient, where grace is embraced, valued, and extended to others.
• That believes the Word of God is alive, where it is exalted, taught, obeyed, studied, and honored with reverence.
• Where people's lives are changed by the transforming power of God.
• Where the out- of- the- norm miraculous still happens, where what is happening cannot always be explained.
• Where members are so moved that they act like magnets to attract other family members and friends to the saving power of Jesus Christ who alone can make the difference.
• Where members function like the salt and light of the earth to a rotten society and a darkened world.

More next time... Remember! Don't wake me yet.

Pastor Ron McCurry