Don't go to Church...Be the Church

This is the first of many stories shared on thesimplechurch.tv website (click on the title to link to the other stories) and I wanted to share it with all you Fox Trotter's...

Thanks for allowing God to use you this weekend through “Be the Church”! Here are some stories of how some of you were the church:

I wanted to let you know that our life group visited 4 homeless camps in the very early hours before daybreak this morning. I am grateful to TSC and to Justin for encouraging us to take a little detour and even some risk. This was a very different experience for our Life Group (except for 1 who was our "experienced guide" & some of her friends) :o) We took breakfast, coffee, fruit, water, and other food items, blankets and socks and went to parts of town my eyes had never seen. God showed us a kind of pain and desperation we hardly knew existed in our community, yet these folks were all so thankful and polite to us. We saw young and old; men and women, but almost all of them had a smile and a story for us. When I snuggle under the covers of my warm, safe bed tonight after eating way too much for dinner, I’ll be praying for my new friends.

No Shortcuts!

"Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention." ~ Jesus (Mt 7:13-14 MSG)

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  (Mt 7:13-14 NIV)

How has Jesus asked us to live?  Are we committed and lovingly obedient to it?  How is that changing the way we live?  Are we hearing His voice?

"Stay off the paved path" ~ ERM The Barbarian Way

Into the Swamp

"Postmodernism began in the academic community, oozed into leadership, then morphed into Congress, public schools, and our homes. Sadly, the slumbering evangelical church has also now slid into the murky waters of a post-Christian swamp."

- Charles Swindoll, The Church Awakening

Like a friend of my dad once told him, "It's sad, but it's true, Daddy!"

It makes my heart hurt.