Google must be doing some maintenance. In the middle of my work, Gmail shut down a couple of times. At first, I thought I did something wrong to lose everything; then I saw the error message and understood.
Resets are frustrating but necessary.
I believe God pressed refresh on the American Church. I don’t think He sent the pandemic, but I know He wants to use it—and the out-growth of it–for pruning and fruitful change.
We the people are the Church. Jesus’ primary desire is to bring change in our world through the way we live as His disciples. He calls us to be salt and light, catalysts of positive change in our world. Programs, buildings, and ministries are the expression, the outgrowth, of His work but not the reason for it.
Mission must be personal before it is corporate. It can be both, but only if we find the right order. When we do, our combined efforts create a force for dynamic change in our world. This is the Church Jesus spoke of when He said, hell can’t stop it.
In this reset, the Spirit of God lives in us, so we are Jesus to our friends, neighbors, co-workers. Or, as we like to say at Love KC, we join Jesus where He is already at work, where we live, learn, work and play.
Jesus said, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Is that true of you? Are you following?
Everyone in your sphere of influence should get to hear the Good News from a friend. You are the bridge to Jesus in your world. If your friends and neighbors don’t see Jesus in you, they are unlikely to see Him at all.
One way to live on-mission is to adopt your neighborhood to pray, care, and share. We can help you with that at Love KC.
Remember during the pandemic, when we couldn’t get as caught up in the busy-ness of life? We learned to simplify. We refocused our spiritual exercise to living for Jesus as a family. We included friends and neighbors in our bubble.
Loving God and loving our neighbor became home base for living for Jesus for many.
That’s a good reset.
There is a ton of noise now around mask-wearing, or not; getting the vaccine, or not; and whether it is safe to gather, and if so, with whom and how often.
There is a huge desire to get back to normal but what will “normal” look like?
A reset takes us back to the original plan.
Belinda, my wife and I, are pursuing spiritual growth in community. We read or watch the story of Jesus on Zoom with a group of neighbors and friends through ONEKC.bible. We discuss what we think God is saying and make life choices accordingly. We support each other and hold each other accountable. We worship corporately online or in person.
Pursuing faith in community is the essence of how the people of God have grown through time and around the world.
It is also a reset.
In the American church we can fall into the trap that more is better. The temptation is to centralize our efforts, to direct our best energy into programs and Sundays. These can be good outcomes provided we don’t neglect the process that produces disciples. This is a dynamic tension to manage.
Ideas like, living as missionaries, decentralizing resources to the margins, the priesthood of all believers and everyone living on-mission can be lost—and we can’t let that happen.
If God wants to change the world, He does it through His children. He finds the simple fractal which must be multiplied to grow–in this case it is a disciple living like Jesus. This DNA in the original cell multiplies and grows. It maintains its integrity as it scales, and it produces the original design many times over.
Heaven comes to earth through God’s people.
The world takes note and believes.
Welcome the reset