A good friend of mine had a statement recently in his blog…<\/p>\n
“If you’re going to blog, then do it!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I don’t recall in particular what he was referring to, nor can i find it on his site any more.\u00a0 But ever sice reading it, I have had that phrase tickling the back of my mind.\u00a0 I can’t get it out of my head at the moment, and it has prompted me to do just that.\u00a0 Here we go:<\/p>\n
I’ve found myself in at a myriad of crossroads, resembling the spokes on a wheel…a very LARGE wheel.\u00a0 There’s dozens of directions to go, and I’m torn between what I think I need to do, and what I *want* to do.\u00a0 I’m torn between my preference and God’s best.\u00a0 I’m torn between churches.\u00a0 I’m torn between dwellings.\u00a0 I’m torn between\u00a0 career paths. I’m torn betwen marching and not marching.\u00a0 good grief.
\nToday<\/strong>
\nThe marching season is already underway, and I’ve already made that commitment for the duration of the season…\u00a0 At least that’s decided.\u00a0 However, I think that I must begin to seek out how to go about what is next.\u00a0 Understanding that, for me at least, the marching days are going to end relatively soon.
\nMaybe not this season, or even the next (I’d like to finish my 5 years), but “soon”.<\/p>\nLeanings<\/strong><\/p>\n
I’m seeing a trend pretty much everywhere.\u00a0 Among people in the ministry I have respected and loved, among friends and acquaintences…men and women of God that have my utmost respect.\u00a0 They’re leaving the traditional “brick and mortar” paradigm of the church and starting churches in the home.\u00a0 As hard as I look, the reason God has really spoken to me regarding some of this escapes me, but I know that very soon I will be VERY involved at this level…perhaps even by creating one myself…<\/p>\n
I find that every church I visit is concerned with programs and policies, methods of garnering as much financial support of the people as possible, “cocooning into their own little world” and doing as much as is humanly possible to segregate every part of their lives from the world.\u00a0 Some of you will say, “Well, yeah!\u00a0 You should be separate from the world!”\u00a0 This is different, though.\u00a0 There’s no interaction with the hurting…\u00a0 There’s no eye to the things Jesus Himself requested of us.<\/p>\n
Over the next several weeks and months, I’m going to be wondering aloud here, starting with the very basics of the faith, and working my way through just what a church is and should be.\u00a0 WHat it should look like in our society, what it’s mission is and how we are to effect the works of Christ in the Earth today.<\/p>\n
I have the sneaking suspicion that it doesn’t look a thing like what we have in front of us, and that God is calling people to bring things back to the beginning…to the place that first called us to Him.\u00a0 And for those that never quite knew Him (because the church had failed them by being too full of itself to see that they were hurting and needed rescue from “this place” we call the world) to have an opportunity to know a God that is relevant.\u00a0 One that is intimately familiar with their hurts, desires, hopes, fears, and faults but chooses to know them anyway due to the immense love He has.
\nCome along for this ride with me…Add your two cents.\u00a0 Let’s all work through this together, and perhaps…just perhaps we will find God at the end of the conversation, and will all be better for the journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A good friend of mine had a statement recently in his blog… “If you’re going to blog, then do it!” I don’t recall in particular what he was referring to, nor can i find it on his site any more.\u00a0 But ever sice reading it, I have had that phrase tickling the back of my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeraldsheets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}