"Church"

One of the goals of my ministry is to have our individual spiritual lives deepened and to make them less centered on the outer religious aspects of "church."  What I am constantly praying for, yearning for, is more transparency, more authenticity, more being "real" with one another.  What I hope for is that we would come to worship with a desire to be changed, to be transformed, not by what the pastor or any other leader directly says or contrives to say, but by what God is doing in and through our life together.

This way of looking at "church" requires us to be less guarded with what the Lord has been saying to us.  It requires us to speak the truth in love to one another, regularly, constantly, prayerfully.  It also requires lots and lots of prayer.  That's one reason why I have wanted prayer time to be central to what we are doing as a church and, specifically, to what we have been doing on Wednesday evenings during this Lenten season.

This requires more spiritual effort on the part of those who "attend."*  It's a select group of deeply spiritual people who come out to worship on Wednesdays.**  On Wednesdays, therefore, I've put less emphasis on the "performance" aspect of what we do and more emphasis on participation.  That is the direction that the Lord seems to have led us in, though I have not been able to put it into words until now.***

I know the things that have been shared on Wednesday have been important, whether they are things that I planned in advance or things that others shared in the moment.  This past week something my wife shared was straight from the Lord's heart for us.  Unfortunately none of our Wednesday evening services have been recorded, so going back to see just what has been said is impossible.  But, with prayer, the Lord can speak to our hearts and work through what we have experienced.

I certainly hope people have been seeking to hear the Lord's voice more deeply through these weeks.  If what is shared is not considered and prayed over after worship is through, if it's not applied to our personal lives, then something is certainly amiss.

You who read this are an important partner in the gospel, whether or not you are part of our particular local church.  Your voice is important.  Please comment, send me an email, give me a call or find another way to share what the Lord is saying to you about "church."  It's important business.  It's God's.

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* "Attend" is such a strange word, I think, to apply to worship, unless "attend" has the sense of being "in attendance" to the King in the way that servants and ministers wait upon the King or Queen in the courts of old.

** Not that there aren't equally spiritual people who do not or cannot come out on Wednesday for worship.  So many of our people are deeply committed to regular Bible study and prayer.  So many are parts of Bible study groups and other spiritual disciples with others.  What we do on Wednesdays during this season is just "one more" option for many, even though we may like it to be otherwise.

*** That's also true on Sundays at Crossroads.  Worship is not a "performance" to be "watched" on Sundays either.

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