Progress?

As the Driven class, we've taken an ambitious subject. At the very heart of these last few weeks is the essential question "What does it mean to be a Christian?" As I'm sure you're aware, there is no shortage of opinions on this. Some of them are genuine, some are of genuine intent, and others are something else. Being spiritual is an "in" thing to do right now, but we've discussed how what's popular isn't necessarily right. We understand that this is a challenging issue, one that goes to the very heart of what we believe. Our prayer is that what we're saying is received with the same heart that it's offered. This is by no means a class lead by people with all of the answers trying to get you to get your act together and be more like us. I don't think that anything could be further from the truth.

On Sunday, we wrapped up a discussion about what the church should actually look like. Ideally, a church shouldn't be a place we go for the sake of being there. A vibrant church is one that encourages and equips its members to go out and build the kingdom. As a part of that church, it is up to us to do the encouraging and up to us to do the going out. If we're not extending God's love outside the church walls, what was the point of going in the door in the first place?

Now that we've spent time identifying what church should look like and our role in it, we switched gears to look at what we can do about it. The first thing we can do is come to an understanding of what God is trying to accomplish. He sent his Son and Jesus told us why he was here. He was here to give us life - not just any old life, but an abundant life. The first step to realizing our potential in Christ is to put away the safe god that we've created and trade him in for the one who's alive. We sing all the time about how great God is and how He's mighty to save us, but until we act like those things are true they're just words. God is calling us into something deeper, but the first step is ours. What's holding us back from the life God promised is us. Don't tell the pastor that we're teaching a prosperity gospel, because that's not what we were promised. First of all, he doesn't like that stuff and, more importantly, it's just not true. This is not about "Do these three things and your life is good." What we were promised is a life with Him and it starts when we make our move.