As we move into a new year and new building, we have amazing opportunities in front of us. Opportunities to promote the goodness of God, helping others embrace His gift of salvation, and live in the fulness of the beauty of a life with Him. In the midst of these things there lurks some worry- worry that our “homecoming” will draw us to comfort and complacency, that, instead of us all participating in our calling of promoting God’s love > our sin, we begin to expect that our new building and our staff will draw people in. I realize that to be a community that doesn’t “settle in”, each and every one of us needs to rely on God with a daily commitment to live Jesus > everything. So, with that’s said, here is my prayer for Real Life in 2019:
God, I pray that we are desperate for you.
That we are receivers and distributors of your overwhelming GRACE.
That your Spirit would move in us in significant ways.
That we would be a church where prostitutes, drug dealers, criminals, Christian haters, the obnoxious, hard to get along with, unkept, and outcasts would find a home of deep, pursuing, godly love.
That that experience of the weekend services would be something that we all enter into not thinking “What do I get out of this?” --but instead acting on, “How can I serve and love those I see at church?”
That the new building would be a launching pad to be the church in the community.
That we serve our community in a way where people actually see the Kingdom of God here on earth.
That marriages would thrive, that children and students will grow to love Jesus and impact their schools, that adults would really love their neighbors, and that we would really live the love we talk about.
I pray that we are a truly a community where each person is loved and transformed to live Jesus > Everything, that we would be overcome by the reality that God’s love > our sin, that we would live committed to our calling > comfort, that we would invest deeply in one another’s life because we > me, and that, like Christ we would lay our lives down for others because others > us.
Real Life I beg you to pray this prayer and revisit this prayer often this year because to be any of this, it will take all of us relying on God to work through us. May we be a church that prays urgently, acts diligently, and loves extremely… Because God first loved us.
-Drew Froese