Today I was part of an amazing experience in my local community. I was there for the first Sunday of a start-up of a new church. I've been on a journey for about the past 18 months that has many times felt like I was climbing up a huge mountain and that the air was thinning and it was getting more difficult to breath the harder I had to climb. What I didn't realize was that in the quest towards the top of the mountain, I would be growing closer to God. I read my Bible but also read a lot about what Christianity really looks like, not necessarily what it means to be "religious". Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley was one such book. The subtitle on this book, is "Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend. The whole concept of this book, caused me to pause and think about how I view my own faith and how God wants me to live that faith out. A quote from The Tale of Three Kings, by Gene Edwards summed up many of my feelings over the past year, "Beginning empty handed and alone frightens the best of men. It also speaks volumes of just how sure they are that God is with them". It is reading quotes like this that reinforce to me that when I felt truly empty as I headed up that mountain, was when I began to be assured that God was with me. As Mr. Stanley points out, "What began as unexplainable, became institutional. Before long, the church was less movement and more establishment. Two thousand years later, the church is still struggling to regain it's original identity, purpose and passion". This morning, I was blessed to feel the passion of those around me, to once again be reminded of the purpose, and to be filled with hope of what the future holds.
I wish I could say that the path will be easy now, but that would be assuming too much, and I have come to realize that it's at the times when I begin to think it will be easy, that Christ brings me back to that place of empty handedness so that I can be reassured that He is with me. However, I spoke of the hope I felt, and although much of that surrounded the church launch, more importantly a key point from Deep and Wide was demonstrated to me. In summary Andy Stanley says, " the cornerstone or foundation of "the church" is the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God". He goes on to say, that "two millennia later, that is still the unifying factor within the church". This concept of unification was so clearly illustrated by other local churches, who bowed their heads in prayer that through this church, the Kingdom would grow and that others would come to know Christ.
The author shares many thoughts throughout the book on transitioning, reaching the lost, and bringing about a new generation of young adults who are passionate about the church. This is what motivated me to look at my life, my religion, my spirituality. I have four kids, ages 13-21 and just as scripture says, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth". Because of this, I join Andy Stanley in staying, "surely we can find some common ground around out passion to recapture the attention and imagination of a generation of kids that is growing up in a church that can't wait to leave" I believe this morning, I was standing on some of that common ground, in the midst of my city, singing, "Greater Thing Are Yet To Be Done In This City", all the while humming softly to myself, that old childhood Sunday School Song, "Deep and Wide" Thank you Andy Stanley for being one of many that God has used this past year to grow my faith Deep and Wide.
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