Moving Forward

I had planned this week to work on blogging a bit more of David Fitch's book, the Great Giveaway. However, I needed to lend the book to a fellow pastor, and so I'm going to put that series on a bit of hiatus...hope you're ok with that.

And so we move forward!

We have had some interesting times the last few months. As I've mentioned, our largely aged and caucasian church has merged with a largely young, mostly filipino church. We've recently decided on a new name (mine didn't get picked, but no sour grapes!), and as I mentioned to a pastor friend, I feel like we're sitting in the car together, road map out, and keys in the ignition. Our next step, as in any trip, is to step on the gas and get going! However, churches stepping on the gas look very different. I'm not even sure what ours will look like, but I think however it looks, it needs to be a process soaked in the prayers of the saints.

Coming back from holidays has been bittersweet, as it always is, but i think i'm ready to get going.

I'm preaching this week on culture and gospel, and i'm really looking forward to it. I'm hoping to take cues from Acts 15, showing how deciding which parts of our faith are culturally conditioned (yes, all of them) but which are necessary to the gospel and which are not, and then focusing in not on our differences but on our similarities. I'm hoping that it comes across loud and clear that we are unable to transcend our cultures, but that our communication interculturally can be possible when we find points of similarity. I know this seems like i'm moving from anthropology to theology, but i don't believe that to be the case. so there.

mike