sucking it up and missing the mark

Mark16: 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. 17 “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;

18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”


I grew up in a Pentecostal Assembly of God Church right smack dab in the middle of Jackson, Mississippi. The tongues billowed freely and the 'anointing oil' flowed like wine....well, maybe not wine because of the STRICT 'no drinking' policy. There happened to be the occasional Jericho march and if the pastor didn't get to preach, it was just a sign that you were having 'real' church. I did see God work in miraculous ways healing people and releasing others from lifetimes of addictions. All of these things have their time and place, but my God...we missed the mark.

Fast forward to adulthood.


In a way, I had a choice in the matter...in a way the choice had already been made for me. Whatever the path that led me there, I had become a full time worship/youth pastor at an incredible, rising, technology driven church that was gradually teaching me to establish and develop relationships as a way into the hearts and lives of new people. I was great at starting them up, but would seldom forget my reason for building the relationship in the first place....in a way it became more worldly and sound rather than magnetic and flowing. Then all of the sudden, one day, I stopped caring at all. I became a mindless drone of 'getting the job done' rather than someone who had a relationship with God and used that relationship as a catalyst for transferring it into my everyday relationship building. I still had the same skill level that I had before, but I was missing a key component...and I missed the mark.

Rewinding back.

I grew up believing that all it would take for our church to explode would be to have a true 'revival' where people come from all around just to be a part of this 'move of God'. All of those things are a great foundation in building a successful church, but the problem that we always ran into was a lack of community. I can count on one hand how many times that we had new couples over to our house for whatever reason. It's not that we didn't care, but there was a lack of outside community and the new people that showed up never felt invested because we were such an inward focusing group of people. After all, what WAS Jesus REALLY saying when he said 'casting out demons'? Are you specifically limited to physically laying hands on people who are 'possessed' or 'oppressed' by a demon or could it be something right in front of your face like helping a single mother with groceries, or taking someone into your home when they fall on hard times? Isn't that expelling just as many demons in that person's life than prayer alone? In short, I was missing action....I was the missing REaction...the Spirit is willing, but the flesh has so much room to suck it up.

So now I'm at a crossroads where I'm having to learn how to balance the Spiritual with the practical while exercising both to their fullest potentials. When was the last time that you DIDN'T have to apologize for being 'Too Spiritual'? On the other hand, when was the last time that you just opened up your eyes to realize that the answer you'd been "Praying so hard for' was right in front of your face the whole time? It's time to get back to the basics of our faith...I think that the early church of Acts 2 says it the best:


Acts 2:42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.