Uncomfortable Faith
This is what you signed up for.
Intro
Charles Spurgeon once said:
If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all; and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it.
Message
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Looking outside of ourselves. Putting aside personal comfort and coming often to the cross. This is what being the church means.
It means worshiping all together without segregating by age or interest (e.g., “contemporary” or “traditional”). It means preaching the whole counsel of God, even the unpopular bits. It means fighting against homogeneity and cultivating diversity as much as possible, even if this makes people uncomfortable. It means prioritizing the values of church membership and tithing, even if it turns people off. It means pushing back against the privatization of relationships by insisting that the health of marriages is the business of the church family. It means sticking around even when the church goes through hard times. It means building a tight-knit community, but not an insular one, that engages the surrounding community and sends out members when mission calls them away. It means bearing with one another in love on matters of debate and yet not shying away from discipline. It means preaching truth and love in tension, even when the culture calls it bigotry.
None of this is easy, and none of it is comfortable. But by the grace of God and with the Holy Spirit’s help, uncomfortable church can become something we treasure.