Status Updates From The Reason for Church: Why ...

No, the church isn’t a building, but a building is a lot more than an irrelevant to or distraction from “real” ministry … without a physical, tangible place to call home, it’s hard to experience, let alone steward, God’s blessing

Theres no faster path to forgetting g the purpose of God’s blessing than taking it for granted and letting abundance remind you of what you don’t have.

The mark of the true church is an expanding witness to the presence of God: guest to our families, then to others in the church, then to our neighborhood, then to our city, then the country and ultimately the whole earth.

We typically understand that God’s presence is essential to his mission yet forget that God’s mission is unfinished without his spreading presence. The church isn’t just the means for how we live out God’s mission, the church is herself the fruit of God’s missional activity in time and space. [The church] is the earthly manifestation of our high priest extending his presence

Every time we read Scripture and come across familial language it isn’t saying that church is like a family or household but that we are one… we belong to the body of Christian with whom we live day in and day out.

We’re often fooled into thinking that hospitality is a function of belonging rather than a means thereof. So we wait for someone else to go first.

There is a remarkably strong and consistent correlation between giving and belonging … you sacrifice for what you love and you love what you (cheerfully) sacrifice for

Paul isn’t saying “don’t tell obligated to give if you don’t want to” but that if we don’t feel pisits (faith, trust, loyalty) to give cheerfully, we don’t full apprehend the “indescribable charis (grace, gift, benefit)” we’ve been given. Then, we need to taste and see anew the even greater hospitality of our divine patron and host

We’ve achieved enough autonomy in life that we’ve forgotten that all friendships need healthy, reciprocal obligation potent enough to occasionally supersede individual desires

Faith is certainly not less than [mere belief / cognitive assent to the gospel] but … Faith means swearing allegiance to Jesus and his household. I don’t invite Jesus into my heart. I join his flock. I become part of his we.

Two essentials ingredients of healthy belonging: obligation and sacrifice

Modernity is uniquely unsuitable and inhospitable to starting and strengthening the bonds of friendship

So when Paul says the mister ion of the gospel has been revealed, he is using a familiar analogy to explain to the Gentiles that they now have access to full covenantal relationship with God (Eph 3:4-6) through the sacraments of baptism and Communion

Narrative bypasses, all kinds of objections and emotional barriers to inject truth straight into our bones

What story does our calendar tell about what is true, good, and beautiful? Is it a story of freedom and rest, or of drivenness and anxiety?… What story does our financial spending tell about what is true, good, and beautiful? Is it a story of generosity and wisdom, or of short-term satisfaction and consumerism?

He realized part of of his problem was deconstructing without questioning whether certainty was even the standard he should be aiming for

Jesus invited us to experience resurrection life by devoting our whole selves to our church as fully as he devoted himself to us. … we can’t claim to be taking up pur cross and following Christ if we aren’t fully devoting ourselves to the bride he died to save.

Asking someone for help is about more than getting answers or gaining knowledge. It jump starts a process that deepen relationship and strengthens bonds with everyone you rely on.

For individualist,, you are the sum of your distinctives – your personality, beliefs,, skills, attributes, accomplishments, etc. For collectivist, and you are the sum of your relationship relationships – the communities, groups, and tradition you belong to

We simply underestimate how much using a metaphor of consumption (“Church shopping”) in lieu of scriptures metaphor of marital commitment (“Christ bride”) undermines our ability to treasure God’s priceless possession as he does

The moment we say yes to one identity, we limit ourselves and say no to every other option. We’re certainly less free – but what if that’s OK? What if some freedoms are limiting, and some limitations are freeing?

If God rescued us by submitting himself to our most cruel instrument of torture and execution, He can surely redeem and restore us through a vehicle of our hurt and disappointment

Redemption only comes through brokenness