Dear Lord;
Please help me to overcome my preconceived notions of who you are and how you work.
A pretty pathetic prayer when you consider it is coming from a guy who has been following Christ for a long time and even worked at a church for a long while... yet if I am being completely honest about where I am right now this prayer reflects directly the flaw in my thought process. I had decided for God how and when he worked, I had also decided how this new church thing was going to work. This isn't the first time I have come to this realization, it is just as I continue on my journey with more experience and intelligence grows new arrogance.
God says "Step Down from your position at Cross Walk"
I say, "You got it God... after this summer!"
God then makes a way for the church to find a new person (doing a great job I hear BTW) and I am gone by February.
God says, "It is time for you guys to find a new church"
I say, "Awesome God, I know just what we will do... I will take the first few months to visit all the churches around town, make notes and compare them than make an educated decision based on my awesome system (I even made sheets to rate our experience).
God says via Rachel and Lily Sunday after our first visit, " Let's come back here next week, I really really liked it!, (well Lily was just excited about cupcakes and new toys)".
So here we sit quite possibly one and done after one week! We went to Crossview in Rockmart and absolutely LOVED it. This was Rachel's first choice, I was cynical for reasons that will be discussed later but man did God really blow me away. I did try even in my cynicism to come with an open mind and willingness to be honest about the experience but deep down knew I would leave saying "I knew it wasn't for us". Instead I was challenged to my very core by this guy about my age in a plaid shirt (everyone wears plaid shirts) and converse. The Holy Spirit was very evident in that refurbished gymnasium and I was convicted not only by the message but by revealing an arrogance in me concerning the methods of God.
I had become such an "expert" of "church stuff" or so I thought, I sat in my church environment and made grand judgements (not out loud so much) on what was going on in the churches surrounding me. " Oh yeah that church, they are all about numbers" I would think. "As long as they look cool and draw people they don't care." Or I would think, "That church is ran like a corporation, they could care less as long as they meet the bottom line". I also looked at churches with young pastors, contemporary music and a certain style and would scoff " What a bunch of hipsters... Jesus isn't hip! What will they do when they are no longer hip?" I sat in there too lazy and judgemental to actually find out what these others were actually doing.
So back to Sunday as I met the pastor I noticed the converse, the hair and jeans, I thought well this will be interesting... Praise God I didn't allow that thought to close my mind. Because shortly after that I remember a conversation I had with an older member concerning a youth wearing a hat in the building at CWC, he wanted the kid to take it off, the kids hair looked terrible and he would rather have left. I challenged this man on why it truly mattered, and actually succeeded in allowing the student to keep his hat(and in his mind his dignity). Suddenly I felt this hypocrisy come over me standing in the atrium of this church. What right do I have to judge this guy because he isn''t dressing up. I am basically doing the same thing that drove me crazy concerning adults and their treatment of youth over the past ten years. That guy prays to God in his pajamas, so why would God be offended by him presenting God's word in his natural attire, so I had to ask myself, "What gives me the right to be offended or even care about how he looks." In service it didn't take long to get past the look of the man because the holy spirit was hitting me left and right in there I left that sanctuary a changed man not only by the message relating to my duties as a husband (that was the sermon) but a much smaller and humbled follower of Jesus.
Preconceived Notions are dead, God is not exclusive to the simple thoughts of simple people. His ways are SO big and broad that he can overlook the narrow views of the church to reach out to many using many different kinds of means. The Lord is truly amazing and I thank him for continually growing me and changing me!
No question this week.
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