I Think I Found Our Why

 

Did you spend some time with the questions we posed last time: "What happened to your Why?" Or these: "What is the Why that gets (guests) in the front door?" "Should our Why ever change?"

 

You may want to refresh last week's blog in your mind, but I got enough emails and texts from around North America that it helps me believe we're addressing an issue in today's church that deserves significant conversation.

 

In the time of Noah the invitation was to leave the streets and come join the club... it's the only place that's safe. But the church Jesus birthed had an entirely different template: Go out from the club and do church in the streets. Of all the miracles performed during His earthly ministry, only two were done in church. All the others were done "in the streets," by the road, by the pool, in a home, near a market. Maybe a football huddle paints an acceptable parallel. The team gathers for a brief time to get directions from the coach but the game is played on the field, not in the huddle. Team members need a huddle but only because of what they're going to be doing when it's over.

 

In what we have come to call the Great Commandment Jesus told us to love God and love others. That's elegant in its clarity. And it really defines our Why. Our communities deserve to see in us both sides of the gospel - truth and proof. We trust every promise God has made. And as evidence of that, we don't just go hunker down in the club house, we unselfishly invest in those God brings to us.

 

Our passion becomes to connect to people through acts of amazing love while connecting them to a God of amazing grace.

 

God defined His wishes for His people early on...in the time of father Abraham. He said, "...I will bless you...and you will be a blessing." (Gen 12) There it is: He blesses us; we bless others. That's our Why.

 

A man I know walked in to a sporting goods store and soon discovered that the manager was distraught. The store was about to go under, he was working 60-hours per week, and his marriage was in deep trouble. The customer immediately asked himself, "How can I bless this man?" so he said, "Sir, I believe God sent me here to bless you. Can I pray for you right now?" Early the next week the customer returned and the manager sought him out. "I sold the store," he said, "and did well on it. My wife and I have worked out a deal to see a counselor and my world is entirely different than when you were in here last week." Exhibit A.

 

A building full of blessers, eager to get out where life happens. That's how God designed it - earning the right to tell His story because of their acts of reckless love. Truth and proof. That's our Why.

 

By Don Jacobsen