Tag: community

YOU NEED TO GO TO YOUR OWN LOCAL CHURCH ONLINE

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There is a massive reality that you could produce an epic Sunday morning experience today.

Select your favourite speaker (who probably happens to have a couple of bestsellers), and tune into a set list that has been beautifully recorded and sounds incredible.

I have joked that with all these churches upping their online presence we could literally go anywhere.

But I don’t want to go anywhere.

I’ve pondered all week about what Church is really all about. For me: it’s not just hearing the word and worshipping, it’s the fact that I do that WITH MY PEOPLE.

People make my church experience.

It’s the little chat with the welcome team, the people asking me how I’m getting on with Aaron away, the chat with the folks who sit around us and catching up on real life.

The churches biggest job in this season won’t be delivering a beautifully shot sermon, or producing a decent sounding worship set – it will be trying to maintain connection with people. Real connection: one that goes beyond number of service views and that carefully cares for the flock.

We need to get super creative with how we do this community part. My head is spinning with all the possibilities.

So do yourself a favour – tune in to your local church. See whose face is on screen, and then try and visualise the faces you usually see tuning in along with you. I can already hear Pat (an older, vocal lady who sits up front)shout her Amen during the preach.

And if you are part of our beautiful church – please get in touch. We miss you.

Just Be……

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There have been 2 phrases that have haunted me for the last while and seem to be uttered by those nearest and dearest to me.

 
The first phrase that I have come to loathe “it is what it is” – frequently released from the mouth of my husband, usually in moments when I have zero control over a situation that I am desperately trying to change. Reminding me that I can’t change it and to embrace it because after all “it is what it is”, makes me want to swing for him, not only because I hate the phrase but because deep down I know he is right.  There is nothing we can do at times other than to embrace the moment, to sieze the day because guess what – it is what it is.
 
The second phrase “just be” is tediously linked, and is the most recent repetitive saying that has creeped into recurrent conversations with my closest sidekick Erin Griffith. 
 
She has helped me think this phrase out and contributed to the following ramblings.  
(One day she’ll write an entire post for me – I know it)
 
This is a simple idea.  
 
I love that as people – we overcomplicate everything.  
 
As the people of God we are on a mission. We carry the presence of God.  We build a community.  We make disciples. We tell the world about Jesus and His good Father.  I am passionate about the mission – I love talking about it. I love inspiring other people about the mission. I am so committed to seeing the church be everything that she can be. The church is truly the hope of the world.
 
But hope, change and this mission of ours is incomplete if we all just sit around and talk about it. I realise that it can be so easy to sit around and talk about the things that we find frustrating about our personal worlds.  The change we want so desperately to happen, and we talk about it what it COULD look like. As friends we have understood that the conversation must move beyond words – there is an action in those moments. And it doesn’t come from anyone else but us. 
 
Ghandi put it most eloquently when he said “be the change you want to see in the world”
 
And that is the challenge – to Just Be.
 
We are guilty at times about talking about the changes we want to see. The organisers among us create teams, we have strategy meetings about the real meetings we are going to have, and we plan out how best to bring about the change. The meetings can seem endless and the doer in me hates all the talk. There’s some stuff that we simply just can’t plan because it simply is about us just “BEING the people of God”
 

I can’t help but read the gospels and be challenged by the fact that Jesus simply came into the world and “showed” us His world so to speak.  Yes He talked – but He had this “just be” thing sorted. He came and He did. He changed a culture by just simply living out the kingdom He was king of. His kingdom is different. It’s not one of talk but of power.

It’s not breaking news, but the more time we spend getting to know Jesus the more we become like Him. This makes “just being” that bit easier.
 
So when the thoughts come, “I wish things wouId change, I want the church and the world to be different, I wish I was part of a better community, one which is authentic & one where the people are active in each others lives” JUST BE.  Be the community you want to see. Be the culture you dream of. Invite people into your world, be vulnerable, be real. If it’s real and authentic then it’s easy – no one is trying to force anything, it should be as natural as breathing. To just be Jesus – because we carry Him.
 
I know there’s a place for planning – I’m not discounting that at all. But somewhere along the way have we lost the fine art of just being? Being part of a kingdom – being natural, being supernatural. Not talking about it. Just being it. Because that is who we are. Do your part. It’s time to set a new normal, change your culture. Let people see your substance is something worth having – when we live it, they see it, and when they see it, they will want to live it too.
 
JUST BE!