the one thing i long for more than anything else in my leadership role at north point, is for someone to say to me, “hey, give me the names of four or five families that need someone to get to know them, stay interested in their lives, keep them connected to north point, and invest in their spiritual growth. just let me know who they are, and i’ll (we’ll) take care of them!”
the growth of a church family is not just about finding and reaching new people who need to be connected to god…it’s also about caring for people after they walk in the doors. we need to stop thinking that god has given that job to other people in the church. if you’ve been at north point longer than a few months, maybe you should start looking for your people!
I am a husband, a dad, a spankin' new grandpa (big papi), a pastor, a teacher, a fellow-wanderer, a baseball junkie, a lover of 24, waffles, the first day of fall , loud music, kids, play, the grace of God, and St. Augustine grass!
8 responses so far ↓
Corey The PK // June 10, 2008 at 10:45 am |
you know this may or may not be good thing to post but i dont really care… its how i feel. Before i was a washed up has been athlete i thought fake intensity was worse than no intensity at all. i feel churchy people are the same way. if you are going to be nice to guest at least make it from the heart otherwise dont do it. Jesus wasnt fake so why should we be… feel me?
Scott Walley // June 10, 2008 at 9:11 pm |
I’ve struggled with that same line of thinking, and it got me wondering if genuine fellowship could still be born out of a more or less “fake” desire to get to know people.
I know that Jesus loves us with perfect, unconditional love, and because he is perfect and we are sinful, there can be nothing lovable about us. So maybe his interactions with humans were, in one way, one huge example of how Kingdom Living should be done, every day. Jesus loved the people that were full of sin, people that nobody else cared about-not because they had anything to offer, but because he did. Here’s a cool quote I heard:
Class is how you treat people who can do nothing for you. — Geof Greenleaf
I would replace the word “class” with “following Jesus”
thepadre10 // June 10, 2008 at 9:35 pm |
“fake” is a tough word. i think there are a lot of people who wander into “fakeness” unintentionally. i think that since our nature is to hide and cover and act like everything is ok when it’s not, we just gradually become people that steer away from openness, honesty, transparency and genuine, caring friendships. we gotta figure out how to stop this shallow stuff. now.
i’m feeling it.
scott…i’m all over the quote. very nice.
Scott Walley // June 10, 2008 at 10:36 pm |
This is one reason why I think events like bowling or project connect are such a great thing, because it offers a different sort of arena to get to know people in. Inside a church building, I think people can be so concerned that everything should be done in a proper order and maybe the thought is that if I take a shot and screw up a relationship within these walls, it’s really going to hurt a lot more than it would outside, because people would associate that bad relationship with God, or the church, or something like that.
I know that Christians should represent Jesus wherever they are, and if we are to believe that Jesus’ Great Commission applies even to us today, getting to know people we never wanted to in the first place has to be on the list of things we have to be willing to do…
Aanna // June 11, 2008 at 12:17 am |
I think that the way I show love to people is very often a fake love. And I think that it would be better to punch someone in the face than to show fake love. It’s basically saying, “Despite all that God has done for me, you’re still not worth muscling up the generosity and openness to truly love you for who you are.”
When the Bible says things like:
“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him,” and
“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us,” and
“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother,”
then I realize that I have spent a lot of my time as a Christian working on things that don’t matter as much as loving my brother (studying the Bible really well, praying for a long time, suppressing “badness”). When I can’t genuinely love the people I see at church, then I’ve basically gotten THE second most important thing wrong. This haunts me. It makes me see how on the most basic of levels, I need Jesus to change my heart.
thepadre10 // June 11, 2008 at 1:52 am |
“Despite all that God has done for me, you’re still not worth muscling up the generosity and openness to truly love you for who you are.”
this could be one of the great quotes of all time. thanks, aanna.
Erin // June 11, 2008 at 2:15 am |
Today is still only the 10th, right?
Luke // June 11, 2008 at 3:00 am |
Its funny that one of the biggest things that attracted Harmony and I to NP is a family stepping out of their comfort zone and inviting two complete strangers to eat lunch with their family, yet it is one of the hardest things for us to do. Maybe they would go to dinner with us and see how truly dysfunctional our family is and go running and screaming to the masses. Or maybe the will like us, see that NP is a church full of people that really aren’t that different than you and have all the same problems and baggage that we have. That shares a common love for a Christ that wasn’t afraid to get off his butt to show us His love.