Good Church?

"Church was GOOD today!" Often times when I leave church this thought goes through my head. I reflect back on the community of believers, maybe some new faces, or a comment after the gathering about how the message touched or spoke to someone, and think: "It was a goooooood day." What makes church good? Maybe if we looked at that definition, there would be a little less competition, and a little more focus on what matters most to God.

Does the look, sound, or message make a church good? But isn't that what we are often referring to when we say church was good? When Jesus was called "good teacher" by a rich young man, His response was noteworthy:

"And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." Luke 18:19 ESV

In this statement, Jesus is not saying no one is good, but goodness belongs to God first. In His goodness we find good: the good He created as well as the good works He has prepared in advance for us (ref: Eph. 2:10). So then when it comes to good, whatever it is, it first needs to come from God. This is a universal truth, and works in any situation if applied. Get it?

So then, what should a "good" church look like? Let's look at the first church to see what they did:

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Acts 2:42 ESV

So instead of trying to do church "good," we might be better to think how to be a church that does good. So then I guess a "good" church has little to do with entertainment value or individual preferences, but everything to do with God's Word, communing with others (fellowship), sharing food, and praying. When those are covered by us, the rest gets covered by God...

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Led OVER Fed

Did you know when it comes to domesticated sheep, if left to their own, they would die? That is right; the domesticated sheep we know and use for wool, etc., need to be shepherded or they will die. They need to be led in the right direction or they will wander into danger: in 2006 in Turkey, a flock of 400 sheep leapt to their death as they followed a sheep that tried to jump cross a 45 foot ravine. Sheep need to have their wool sheared off or it would grow too heavy for them to move, and they would die. Also, if a sheep ends up on its back, it is unable to turn back over, and without assistance to get back up, will die.

The fact is that sheep need a shepherd to survive, and so do we as people. No wonder the Bible, and Jesus, refer to people as sheep. Simply put, sheep wander, and if left alone will wander into danger. We are no different, right?

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way…” Isaiah 53:6(a) ESV

This is so me: when left to my own I wander. I know what is best for me and where I need to go to get it. Although completely dependent on their shepherd for their survival, it is all about his leading and nothing to do with their feeding.

Years ago I found myself going to church on Sundays with the expectation of being fed, and if the feeding was not satisfactory I would start to consider the need to find a new place to feed. Have you ever felt like this? This would be no different than sheep expecting their shepherd to to pull up only the kind grass they liked best, and then feed it to them. Sheep don’t expect that, they simply need to be led to a place where there is a food source, and they will take it from there.

Proper feeding for sheep happens when they let their shepherd lead them to a place where there is good food for them. This is what Jesus says He does for us as the Good Shepherd (John 10). The Greek word for shepherd is “poimen”, “pastor” in Latin, and where the title “Pastor” comes from. So then, this is what any shepherd, of any flock under his care, on any Sunday should be doing: leading God’s sheep to a place where they can feed. There is one place for this, and only one place that is vast enough to offer the best food indefinitely, and that is God’s Word.

So now when you start to think you’re not being “fed” enough at church, or the way you want to be fed, maybe it is not an aptitude issue with the pastor’s feeding skills, but an attitude issue about you, the follower. So long as the pastor is leading you to a feeding from God’s Word, then there will be more than enough to keep you full, as you feed yourself by going back to His Word throughout the week. The pastor shows you the pasture, it is your job to graze until He leads you to the next one. This is what keeps you full…and more importantly, keeps you from wandering - and that is wonderful!

For me as a pastor, I desire to be a godly leader as opposed to a worldly feeder. I want to lead His people, His way, to His Word. I seek to encourage us to become more concerned with helping others find their way to His leading, over any single feeding they have had before. Led over Fed…enough said.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

The HOLE in Holy Week

As Jesus entered Jerusalem from Bethany, where He was staying to be near the temple for the coming feast (Passover), the people chanted and sang to Him and about Him. They covered the dirt streets to ensure the hoofs of the donkey He was riding didn’t touch the ground. They were welcoming their coming Messiah, their Savior. It must have been an amazing sight to see.

But before long they changed their tune, and they acted as if He was never who they thought He was in the first place. They were asked on Friday if they wanted Him released to them, to which they cried all the more louder “Crucify Him!” What could have possibly happened to change their minds and their hearts so dramatically?

I believe this is a clear picture of our human condition: everything needs to be as we expect it to be. The Jewish Nation was waiting for a conquering king who would conquer their enemies and set their nation up to its rightful place as God’s chosen people. Things weren’t going the way they thought they should. They wanted the world to be conquered for their well-being, but instead God conquered death for the well-being of the world (rf. John 3:16).

Is this the view you have of your Savior? That He needs to save you the way you want to be saved? How do you think Moses felt when God gave Him a staff to show Pharaoh? Or Joshua when God told Him to march with his worship band out front into battle? Or Saul when little David asked if he could fight the giant Goliath? Or the disciples when Jesus told them they needed to be like children to enter the Kingdom of God? I bet they were a little less than excited with these propositions, but we can look back on how their obedience brought deliverance every time.

We don’t need to lower our expectations of Jesus, but the opposite – we need to raise them. We need to start to expect our Savior to save us from the worst of all attackers: ourselves...from the complacency that Jesus is not saving us the way we want Him to, that can lead to the indifference of who He really is. Instead of being just like those folks almost 2,000 years ago, we need to accept the completed work of Jesus as enough, and start obeying His word over our will. Then the response we will hear will be “Hell?...NO.”

Come and join us for our Easter gathering this Sunday. We will be celebrating the completed atoning work of Jesus the Christ on the cross at Calvary, and His defeat of death on Sunday proven by the empty tomb. Jesus answers the question “Where does one go after we die?” once and for all, and we will be looking to His Word for our way to lean into Him to experience His glory. In order for the tomb to count, we need to count on the tomb – it is the fullest empty that can and will ever be.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Mirror Mirror

When you look into the mirror, what are you looking at or for? Do you remember when the the evil witch in Snow White heard back from the mirror that she was no longer the “fairest of them all…”? That was the day everything changed. Funny thing was that her reflection had not changed, nor anything about her, but merely the opinion of the mirror had changed. When that changed, so did how she saw herself.

The minute she did not “see” herself as the best, she looked to solve her “problem”, and she became consumed by this. We all know that the witch’s problem wasn’t Snow White; it was pride. We do this. We allow things to obscure how we want to see ourselves. Being created in the image of God means that the reflection is of what God made, not just how we see it. So then when it comes to our reflection, whose opinion about it matters the most?

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT)
 “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”

The veil Paul is speaking about here is the one that keeps us from seeing who we are in Christ. You “see”, it’s not what we see in our reflection that matters most, but whom others see reflected in us.

Reflect much?

In His grip,
Pastor Pat

Ouchless

Everyone has been hurt, and as a natural response, we all try to avoid it again in the future. Although some pain can be avoided, the strategies that are aimed to protect us can sometimes keep us disconnected from those we want to get close to. Often times we want to keep a “safe distance” because we are afraid of being hurt, but often all this does is add distance, right?

We know that when fear kicks in we respond naturally in three ways: fight, flight, or freeze. When presented with a conflict, if you respond by pounding your fist, pounding the pavement, or heart pounding paralysis, you are controlled by fear. Fear can keep us apart, and it also can keep us from the life we want. Fear has to be overcome in order to move on.

Now fear has only one antidote: LOVE. Courage does not remove fear, love does. When our loved ones are faced with danger, courage keeps us moving forward in spite of our fears, it does not remove the fear, only love expels fear. 

"There is no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear." 1 John 4:18(a)

What if instead of being controlled by fear, we let love be what moved us forward? What if we embraced conflict as an opportunity instead of an obstacle for deeper connection? What if we let love lead? Come to Hope Crossing Sunday and let’s learn about a love that can move mountains, keep us moving, and give us strength when we feel like we can’t go on any longer.

For now, here's a tip for when it comes to staying connected: LET LOVE LEAD.

Try This:

1.  Do some random loving act for a person near you.

2.  Take a walk in your neighborhood and pray for each home, and for opportunities to invite someone to church for Easter.

3.  Gather two or more and meet together to pray for our community and plan a way to meet a need in it with other people from our church.

What if we did what Jesus said?  What if we love our neighbor?  I say we find out together.

In His grip, 

Pastor Pat