Thanks Tanya.
Truth is I didn’t really understand what my mum meant when she first said it to me. But I knew not being what you said you were was a heinous crime to her… Worse in so many ways and for so many reasons.
So my desire to be authentic came out of that more than anything else. Over time it’s become about being a true as I can be to what I believe God has every right to expect of me.

I think we need to recapture what it means to live a life of generosity, grace, kindness and love. I totally agree with you that it’s easy to fall into the ‘bigger is better’ mentality – it’s easy to count ‘heads’ in a venue! And being counter cultural within the Christian community is almost harder to do and less popular to do than other places. But I think (desperately hope) it’s possible to be more radical in the way our faith is lived out.
xx

Bekah. You are one wise lady. I think we are so keen for people to ‘get saved’ which obviously isn’t a wrong motivation that we often fail to explain the reality of the choice they are making for fear of putting them off.
I was part of meeting of leaders recently and we recognised (confessed even) that we’d oversold the gospel and undersold the cost.

“We’ve told people to come as they are but forgotten to add that they need to give all that they are.”

I LOVE this insight!

I think possibly the reason that we fail to get involved in our communities as much as we should are because it’s hard. It’s much more likely to be a failure than if we focus our energies on worship and good Christian meetings. The church is sadly not immune from the ‘bigger is better’ philosophy of the world, and, as you so rightly pointed out, it’s easier to go to the popular conference and get ‘fed’ than the smaller one and serve. I think I would probably like to go to the popular one, myself…!

I think this is the sin of the western church (and I include myself in this) that we are too married to comfort to be truly radical. Half of me wants this to change – but the other half doesn’t want to be uncomfortable! I guess that’s the heart of the problem.

Thanks for making me think,

Love the call to action, let’s get involved!!

I’m not sure though that you can make a direct relation to those praying and those getting involved. In our experience those who turn up for a prayer meeting, tend to be those who roll up their sleeves and get involved.

Prayer is the key to keeping outward focused.

As we spend time with Jesus for Him alone. As we walk with Him follow Him, spend time talking with Him, learning for His word – we see the world as Jesus sees it. We see a world desperate for a Lord. As we re-image Jesus, as we develop our picture of Him, we will pray like He does for the world.

As we pray we will want to get involved in projects, our money becomes more useful and we seek His glory before our own.

As Jesus is lifted high in our congregations, we will through Gods grace and Holy Spirit become people who are outward focused. We will pray and DO!

As you say we can and should become answers to our prayers! Thanks again. Look forward to future posts. Be blessed.

I think that sometimes the church has become guilty of selling Christianity short. Instead of talking about the long hard journey of faith we’ve turned it into a one stop shop where people can come to get their hurts healed, their energy refilled, their hopes lifted and once a week they can feel great as they sing at the top of their lungs. And all of that is part of the truth. But not the whole truth.

The whole truth involves a cost – an enormous cost of self. We’ve told people to come as they are but forgotten to add that they need to give all that they are. I think that sometimes we water down the gospel to make it more attractive. We tell people what they will get out of it if they follow – forgive and it will release you, give and get more in return, serve and you will be rewarded, if not here then in heaven.

I think we’ve bought into the ‘me’ culture and it’s almost as if we try to bribe people to be like Jesus – ‘cos it will be worth your while – and your worth it’. And of course it will and they are -but if we give to get, we’re not really giving are we?

Maybe we need to get more honest with the people we are looking to bring into the church and introduce to Jesus – maybe if we talk about the cost and the sacrifice as well as the extraordinary grace and love, they’ll know what they’re signing up to, maybe the decisions they make will be more informed and the lives that they go on to lead will be more authentic.