Falling With Style

'One anothering' is one of those church phrases that the rest of the world rarely registers. However, the fifty nine one another references in the New testament are all so active and powerful that it's time we gave them a bit of airtime and started living them out. Eat, sleep, read, repeat as the song goes (almost!) Through a time of unprecedented change at a local church level, my prescription is that we do just that. Copy and print. Stick them around the house, meditate on them in the mornings. We will mature as we align with this truth, as we let them become the default setting, the climate control for this season of life together in the local church. When there is so much change going on, we can quickly become consumed by the 'what' and the 'how'. All important, but these one another's show us that 'who' we are together through the process is far more important. We could summarise them negatively : Refuse factions, refuse gossip, be wise...

Expectation : A strong belief that something will happen or be the case. At its most potent this firm, unshakeable belief in a certain outcome produces anticipation, expectancy, eagerness and hope. These are the feelings that flood through us when we are convinced something is going to change. They are powerful motivators, and when this kind of expectant hope is kindled corporately in a local church community, undiluted anticipation can rush through the whole and bring real forward momentum. Our problem comes when reality fails to meet our great expectations. The irresistible force of our assumed progress crunches up against the immovable object of reality. And it's reality that bites. Time and again we fail to hit the mark, sometimes coming in close, sometimes nowhere near. Either way, we become conditioned to failure and disappointment. Nothing saps hope in the local church more than this. We dared to believe, but look what happened. From the people who came out of Egypt t...