Why are we here?

Confession time:  ever so often I get into a church planting funk and wonder why we can't be like other churches that are growing like Kudzu in the hot Alabama summers. The last couple of days I was feeling that...then I read Gary Lamb's blog and it knocked me back into reality.  You can read his blog here.  He talks about everyone wanting to reach disconnected people... but really we want to do church in a cool way!  I have to be reminded that there is a BIG price when you go all out to reach disconnected people.  It's messy, it's gut-wrenching at times, it's frustrating as crap, but it's there... sure, I would love to draw hundreds, even thousands of people to my church... I hope one day we get there.  But, our focus, our future, is built on reaching those people who nobody else wants to reach... the broken, the damaged, the weird, the screw ups.  Sure it's going to be messy and slow and painful at times, but how much is it worth to see life change?  How would it have been to see the woman at the well's life changed, or maybe the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years finally healed completely?  What about the dudes that were demon possessed and had lots of junk going on?  What about the leper?  To reach them... it's going to take an investment of time, money and heart... for us, it's going to mean taking phone calls at 3am from someone who's struggling with something... it's going to mean being patient with a person you're investing in because they're taking 2 steps forward spiritually and 3 steps backward sometimes.  But I believe that's why Journey Church exists... We sing a song by Steve Fee called "You are the Light" and the words really nail our focus as a church and remind us what happens when we are the hands and feet of Jesus:

"We are the ones who will shine
his light in the darkness of night
the hopeless, the broken, the poor
they will be hopeless and broken no more
You are the light, the light of the world and we shine You Lord... "

Gary's blog and Steve's song brought me out of the funk I was in and reminded me that we may never be a church that gets recognized by others; I may never be a church planter who speaks a church planting conferences, but I can assure you that we will always be sold out to reaching disconnected people and helping them know Christ personally and intimately... that's why we're here!

 

Comments

[Jay]

Enjoyed this post.