So I m on my bike this morning riding through the ‘hoods for my workout and suddenly I am overcome by Nostalgia.
The Wonder Years theme song begins to play in my mind. “What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me…?” Black and white video montage. Jock Cocker’s raspy crooning… I’m there baby. Paul, Winnie, Wayne, Kevin, Daniel Stern narrating the action. I’m there!
I loved that show! (Don’t lie, many of you did too…)
And then I remembered the FINAL episode of the series. Not sure how many of you saw that one.
It was shot like the last episode of Mad About You where it is a few years into the future and they are looking back after some more time had passed and life had changed. It was sad, actually. Life had changed a lot. Kevin’s dad had died suddenly of a massive heart attack. Life was different.
And that is what made me start thinking about the church—at least the Crossing expression of it.
What do we see now at Crossing? Lives being changed. People being changed daily by the Gospel and making lasting friendships. A ton of heart for mission. Lots of people serving in ministry. A new outpost for ministry just opened in Crescent Hill providing another strategic opportunity to get people connected to a local expression of Jesus’ church. Things are good. No, things are great.
But what if, in a few years (after a conspicuous absence in our running video-just like the show), the crew showed up and got footage of apathetic people, disgruntled volunteers, a closed down gathering, a community that had forsaken the Scriptures and the Mission only to become a country club interested in making themselves feel o.k. about staying the way they are.
That would be a tragedy.
Funny thing is, a lot of how the movie plays out is largely up to us.
Now we believe strongly in the Providence and Sovereignty of God. AND we also believe in authentic, human responsibility where our actions actually matter. It is our job to ‘work out of own salvation with fear and trembling’ (Phil. 2:12) and God’s job to will and work in us according to His good pleasure (Phil.2:13). Surely the natural outworking of both begins at the personal level and fleshes itself out in a myriad of ways, including serving God through the church.
So the question for all of us is pretty simple:
Are we being faithful to play our part in the Story God is telling in our midst?
As men/husbands/fathers in our homes? As women/wives/mothers? As singles committed to leveraging all they have for Jesus? As servants of Jesus through the local church?
It is our prayer as your pastors that the story God is telling in your life (and Crossing) is one of continued growth in grace and knowledge of Him.
It won’t be perfect. There will be plenty of ups and downs and commercial breaks. ; )
But it is our prayer that if someone turned the camera off for five years and brought it back with Joe Cocker and narration, that they would find both individuals and a community of people who loved Jesus and their neighbors even more than they did today. God will definitely hold up His end of the deal.
Are you being faithful to see that that happens?
