Taste of my own....

Sunday night, Joey invited our friends over along with his cousin, her fiancé and their friend, Aaron. Pete, Jenny, Yi and I started discussing language and how our words affect (did I use this right, Meg?) other people. Aaron suddenly chimed in with some scripture. I was taken slightly by surprise and we all ended up having a really good conversation. Then, I started asking him about the church he goes to. Apparently, Sherrie (Joey’s cousin), Vern (her fiancé) and Aaron belong to a very new community church called Red Cedar…something. They all began talking about it and became really excited because they are taking a different approach to reaching people. For the life of me, I can’t remember what the approach is (maybe you can help me, Yi?) but it had something to do with staying in community with everyone else in the church. For example, Sherrie was telling me how someone recently passed away. The whole church knew about it because they are all connected. It wasn’t just a part of the congregation, it was the whole thing.

So, then Aaron asks where we all attend: Riverview. The response was….not as excited. He said he had been a few times but it was just too big...which is fine. I understand Riv can be overwhelming for people. The three of them then began to compare Riverview to their church….making their church look a little better. I smiled and nodded and really listened to them. Or…I tried because of course, I’ve been around the church block a few times and…grrrrrr….Riverview is my home. But something else was happening inside me, too. I realized how I do this to other people when they are talking about their church. I’ll start talking about mine and maybe I won’t directly put their church down (as I have learned not to insult the bride of Christ) but I paint Riv in such a good light that it might turn people off.

So I listened.

But then…

I opened my mouth….

And said….

“Well, I really pray God blesses your church…but what if He blesses it so much that your church grows beyond what you imagined? What then? You lose that small community thing you have now but people are getting saved….which is what happened to Riverview.”

The answer was simple: we will plant other churches in the area.

I smiled as one of them came back and said, “well, maybe that will happen…”

It’s crazy. Sometimes I’m sure lessons cruise right by me but I feel like I’m picking a lot more up before they are leave town. I’ve got another major lesson to share but it will have to wait until another day….