A Church of Power
This past sunday I preached on "the power of a perfect pattern." I know, it's alot of p's. I talked briefly on the pattern of power. You see I believe that the church should be a place of dynamic presence. By that I mean a dynamic presence of God in every one of our services.
We live in a church culture that is all about the presentation, consumer christianity is what many people have labeled it. People hop from church to church until they find the church with the most skilled communicator, most sleek and cool looking building, most gifted musicians and worship leaders, the best kids & youth programs. There's nothing wrong with all of these things, in fact, we strive to make all of these areas the best they can be in our church. I wonder though, do we spend as much time inviting God's presence to be in our worship services as we do planning & promoting a sleek service.
My prayer for our church and for all churches is that they would be a place of dynamic presence, a place of power. A place where people step in to the building and the power of God is already at work on peoples hearts. My fear is that one day we will put together a sleek service with all the desirable things people are looking for all the while lacking that which is most important, "God's power." May we always be mindful that the presence of God is what changes people, not our manmade and facilitated service schedules.
Lord, give us the same power in our services that we see in Acts 2 when 3,000 people came to the saving knowledge of your son after one sermon.
WE NEED YOUR POWER!
We live in a church culture that is all about the presentation, consumer christianity is what many people have labeled it. People hop from church to church until they find the church with the most skilled communicator, most sleek and cool looking building, most gifted musicians and worship leaders, the best kids & youth programs. There's nothing wrong with all of these things, in fact, we strive to make all of these areas the best they can be in our church. I wonder though, do we spend as much time inviting God's presence to be in our worship services as we do planning & promoting a sleek service.
My prayer for our church and for all churches is that they would be a place of dynamic presence, a place of power. A place where people step in to the building and the power of God is already at work on peoples hearts. My fear is that one day we will put together a sleek service with all the desirable things people are looking for all the while lacking that which is most important, "God's power." May we always be mindful that the presence of God is what changes people, not our manmade and facilitated service schedules.
Lord, give us the same power in our services that we see in Acts 2 when 3,000 people came to the saving knowledge of your son after one sermon.
WE NEED YOUR POWER!
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