Do you remember the days in middle school where guys never really talked to girls and girls never really talked to guys??? It was kinda silly because both wanted to know the other...both wanted relationships...but nobody really talked face to face. We all sent friends to do the talking for us. You know what I'm talking about...right??? It just seemed easier to send a friend because we didn't want to hear first hand what the other might think. There was most always another party involved.
This was silly right??? Immature...middle school...and ultimately there were no real relationships being built.
Well isn't that what we do with God alot of the time??? I know that's how I treat Him too often...I will be quick to use someone else to be a middle man. It's easy to sit and listen to Matt Chandler, Perry Noble or Steven Furtick...those guys are great teachers of the Word and I feel like I learn something every time I hear them. As long as I'm always using a middle man I will NEVER be able to grow my relationship with God to the place it needs to be. I mean well...but the bottom line is that it's as if I'm too scared, busy, whatever (immature I guess) to be man enough to say I've got to clear my schedule, avoid all distractions, prepare myself to spend some real one on one time with the creator of the universe I'll never really know who He is.
Again, like in middle school we can run up to the cute girl and say, "I think you're pretty." and then instantly run away...we often run up to God and say, "I love you...You're awesome." then quickly run away. That's just not how things were meant to be...It takes guts to sit down and have quality time with that person.
This post is coming from personal experience...it's time for me to graduate from this middle school mentality with God...
6 comments:
It is so very easy to fall into the trap of idolizing the middle man. I think North Point is the best church in the nation. However, I must look in the mirror and ask why do I like it so much? Why do I go? Do I go for the great music? Do I go because I like listening to Andy Stanley? Or do I go to worship my Lord and Savior? It's ok to go for the first two reasons but not if they overshadow the third reason. You can best test your heart on those sundays where you are forced to attend a church that is not your home church. If you find yourself carefully evaluating this new church with a bit of skepticism then chances are you've been going to your church for the wrong reasons in the first place. This is tough for me to explain but I'll keep trying. CS Lewis explains, "What God wants of the layman in church is an attitude which may, indeed, be critical in the sense of rejecting what is false or unhelpful, but which is wholly uncritical in the sense that it does not appraise - does not waste time in thinking about what he rejects, but lays himself open in uncommenting, humble receptivity to any nourishment that is going". We are not to be tasters or connoisseurs of churches. If your heart is right, you will worship your Lord and Savior with all your heart, and your mind, and your soul no matter who is singing or preaching. Amen?
-TEvans
PS - I know I got a little ways off Nolan's subject and into a whole new topic within itself but once I started going, I couldn't stop.
Terry-
How long have you been at North Point?
Terry-
What are your thoughts on churches that follow a business model similar to North Point?
I'm a big fan of North Point. Everything about it.
Terry,
great feedback for Durham on that business model...way to elaborate, haha. "reading is fun, may we start the story now".
jk
this is a great one for me. I find myself doing this all the time. Hittin up God for a "quickie" prayer before I run in to talk to a client or when I was in the on deck circle. "hey Lord, how bout a bomb right here. come kid...amen". I think the toughest thing for us to do is shut up and listen. Take things that we are shown in our quiet times.
Like with Terry responding to Nolan's post and then taking it out into left field. I guess Jesus had something on your heart so it just poured out. I don't know about ya'll but 9 out of 10 times I write something on here, I am just preaching to myself for things I need to fix or focus on.
Terry...so true. I find myself doing that alot...My heart breaks sometimes when I go to church and it's not as exciting as NewSpring (my old church) or North Point because Christ was the most amazing, powerful, life changing thing to ever happen on planet earth...so why shouldn't his church (that He died for) reflect that???
Durham...I am a big fan of the "business model". The corporate world is doing a great job of targeting and marketing us and getting thier message to us (whatever that message may be)...the church, however, is not. So whatever the church can take from the business world to expand the one real message that's important in life I'm all for it.
The only thing that scares me about the "business model" that some churches take is that they are trying to fit a square peg into round hole. It's not necessarily the North Point staff that is responsible for it either.
For example...There are a group of folks in my hometown that are trying to clone North Point's ministry. It's hitting a wall...the reason is because they are just trying to copy and paste. Dublin, GA couldn't be any more different from suburbia ATL...it's a totally different culture with totally different people with totally different needs and issues. What works and what's relevant in ATL isn't always relevant in Hicktown, USA.
I believe that if a church is walking closely enough with the Creator then they will know where to plant new campuses and where not to. If you're all about replication and don't receive any revelation from God...then I believe you are straying into dangerous waters.
I praise God for churches like North Point and NewSpring...
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