Last night I had the privilege of being on KDUV with Mike Lorah to talk about 210 and Elevate. It was cool to talk about the "togetherness" aspect of this venture. Visalia (and the rest of our country) seems to be entrenched in a Religious Competition, where instead of having a desire to work together and grow together and be the church, people are more worried about making the other guys look bad and not loosing "their" people to another church. The truth is that the church was never intended to be a building it was those who believe in Jesus and call him their Lord. The sad thing is that it has basically just become another business or organization, that truthfully is sometimes more brutal than the corporate world. I say that not with anger and hatred toward the local church but with Sadness, the church is supposed to be the light to the darkness and not a competition of who can get more people, more money, and better buildings.
Here's the encouraging thing! God is starting to raise up people who get it. By getting it they realize that there are more important things in life than arguing over who is more right and are willing to work with other people even if they don't see eye to eye on some of the issues. My thought is that diversity is something that should bring us together rather than tear us apart.
OK there is my little rant for the day!
But back to last night, it just encouraged me when I got the chance to reflect on what I get to be a part of, and the fact that there are some people rising up who are truly committed to the Kingdom of God and not their own agenda.