There Are Moments When We Have To

As A Pastor, You Get Invited Into The Most Poignant Moments Of People's Lives. Whether It's A Wedding Or A Funeral Or A Hospital Visit, You Get Invited Into The Center Of The Event, Whether Or Not You Know The People.

I Would Hope That Wherever I Go I Bring Good News - That's What That Word Means, Right? It Began With The First Followers Of Jesus Taking A Roman Military Propaganda Term And Co-opting It For Their Own Subversive Purposes, Insisting That The World Isn't Made Better Through Coercive Military Violence But Through Sacrificial Love. How Great Is That!? Unfortunately This Word Has Been Hijacked In Several Years For Other Purposes But No Worries, We're Taking It Back.

Questions Are Not Scary. What Is Scary Is When People Don’t Have Any. What Is Tragic Is Faith That Has No Room For Them.

What Is God Like? Because Millions And Millions Of People Were Taught That The Primary Message - The Center Of The Gospel Of Jesus - Is That God Is Going To Send You To Hell, Unless You Believe In Jesus. And So, What Gets, Subtlely, Sort Of Caught And Taught Is That Jesus Rescues You From God. But What Kind Of God Is That; That We Would Need To Be Rescued From This God? How Could That God Ever Be Good; How Could That God Ever Be Trusted? And How Could That Ever Be Good News.

Your Deepest, Darkest Sins And Your Shameful Secrets Are Simply Irrelevant When It Comes To The Counterintuitive, Ecstatic Announcement Of The Gospel. So Are Your Goodness, Your Rightness, Your Church Attendance, And All Of The Wise, Moral, Mature Decisions You Have Made And Actions You Have Taken.