Friday, April 30, 2010

Thinking Orange continued...

Our Core Values are exciting to preach.  I told a friend this week that I'm enjoying preaching them because I actually believe in them.  And, I know others already do too!  These are not some flashy bullet points out of the latest book but they are values that our leaders worked out together over the course of nearly 18 months.  I am the lucky one who gets to present them.


Last Sunday I preached the our third core value:  Foundation (listen here)
Simply put, we believe in God's word, the message of the Cross, and God's call for us to be holy.  To snag a line from Andy Stanley (whose flashy books I greatly appreciate), "Maximum Freedom is found under the Authority of God."


It may seem trite for a church to say we believe in the Scriptures.  But we believe it important to say it and live like it.  


In a couple days I'm going to preach our fourth core value:  Spiritual Vitality.
Again, simply put, we believe in the beauty of a relationship with God not the performance of the religion of following God.  


My boy, William, loves it when I spend a few minutes lying down next to him in his bed at night.  When I am in a rush to go watch "24" or something and am about ready to leave without spending those few minutes he calls to me, "Dad, aren't you going to stay a few minutes?"  Actually son, I am.  


Perhaps your relationship with God has become rigid and restricted to time/place.  Perhaps, like me, you need to just spend some time with your Father.  Perhaps, like me, you need to remember he's not in a hurry to watch a show on tv.  He's knocking on the door waiting for us to invite him in.

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