Here's a story that circulates the email vortex a little too often, but for this week's sermon it was cogent:
A boy went to church for the christening of his younger brother. Going home, he sat in the back seat quietly weeping. His father asked him, “Son, what’s wrong?”
Bravely, the boy replied, “Well, the pastor said he wanted us raised in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys.”
Funny! Or not so funny?
After all, do Christian parents know what it takes to make a home specifically Christian? Do parents know what spiritual formation is? And for that matter, how many Christians – adult or child – are being spiritually shaped at all? There are a whole bunch of preacher-types out there who tell me that church should be “missional” and go out into the world, but what should be done to spiritually prepare people for this kind of sending?
In last week’s sermon I suggested that a missional faith should be holistic and apostolic, but how do we acquire such a faith? Or, put a different way, how can we be shaped by God to live the missional faith to which we are being called? The answer lies in seeing souls as beings that need to be shaped and changed, not merely “educated” with lots of knowledge about God, but rather encounters with God. Instead of pouring Bible facts and doctrinal statements into our minds, a missional faith is best shaped by experiences with God that aim not only at head knowledge, but heart-level change. This means that that you and I may have to change how we seek God, listen to God, and imitate God’s ways.
We may also discover that our familiar ways of Christian education are inadequate for preparing us to live missionally. Sunday School is a start, but do all the Bible facts we’ve learned through the years change our ways of living? Does missional faith require something more? Yes.
That’s what I’m talking about in Sundays’ sermon entitled Change Your World – By Allowing God to Change You, based on parts of Psalm 119. We’ll explore some ways that you and I can be changed by God (spiritually formed) for missional living, and you may be pleasantly surprised to find that you’re already doing some of these things – and that they’re actually fun!!! Things like conversation, art, hospitality, or exercise, games, or sharing life with others. It all boils down to the fact that God is already working in our lives on multiple levels and in varied ways – we simply need to see things that way and be changed by it.
Hope to see you Sunday,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly column written by me, Gary Long. I’m the pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.
Psalm 119. 1-8 and 33-40
1 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.
3 They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways.
4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.
5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.
8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.
33 Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.
34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
38 Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared.
39 Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good.
40 How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness.
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