Pastors Message – February, 2015

If you should find the perfect church without one fault or smear, for goodness sake, don’t join that church! You’d spoil the atmosphere. * If you should find the perfect church where all anxieties cease, then pass it by, lest joining it, you’d mar the masterpiece. * If you should find the perfect church, then don’t you ever dare to tread upon such holy ground, you’d be a misfit there. * But since no perfect church exists made of imperfect men, then let’s cease looking for that church and love the church we’re in. * Of course it’s not a perfect church. That’s simple to discern. But you and I and all of us could cause the tide to turn. * What fools we are to flee our post in that unfruitful search, to find at last where problems loom, God proudly builds His church. * So let’s keep working in our church until the resurrection. And then we each will join that church without an imperfection.

Dear Friends,

From the time of Jesus to the present the community of faith has been defined by brokenness. There are those who would define the church as perfect – if the church would only do this or do that, we would be better, happier, more perfect. If we are not aware of the ‘cracks’ in our own lives then we become judgmental of the ‘cracks’ in others. No one is a perfect ‘offering’. The cracks allow the light and spirit to enter in. The apostle Paul boasted of his weakness because it made him stronger. Our brokenness, whether in our relationships, health issues, loss of friends, family, jobs, finances, is an opportunity for God’s love, our love and care of each other, to enter in. When Jesus says, "This is my body broken for you", he expresses a truth we must embrace. As we welcome the New Year as followers of Christ my prayer is that our brokenness, that defines us as a ‘cracked-pot organization’, enables us to be a stronger church.

God Bless,