What Really Matters...

I am reading a really challenging book by Francis Chan called Crazy Love (not a book about romance in an insane asylum, or an ex-girlfriend of mine). Very good so far, it reads easy and raises big questions and he has so far not offered easy or trite answers and wants the reader to wrestle things out. This is nice, as most Christian books tend to tell you what to think, feel, or how to act. It makes you feel uncomfortable sometimes as he simply shows God's word, expectations, demands, and our often lack of apparent concern for it. The only criticism is that he paints in broad strokes and could offer more information on some of the provoking topics he elucidates. But, enough of that, the book is great and you would do well to devote some serious and reflective reading of it.

Man, there was this quote from some guy named Tim Kizziar who said

“Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure, but of succeeding at the things in life that don’t really matter.”

This means we find success, but our success does not matter. No one cares, it makes no real impact on anything. We look good and we enjoy it, it provides focus for life, but we racing towards a wrong goal (read about Ray Wrong-Way Riegles). Parents want to be best friends with kids, but offer no leadership or discipline. Churches want to grow and water-down the message and lower expectations. People want to make a good living, but work so hard they fail to enjoy the fruit of their labor. You can just going on here.

I asked myself what was I successful at in my life that did not matter to eternity. I though about Antioch Baptist Church, where I pastor, we by most accounts are a fairly successful church, but is our success and is goal that of God? These are big questions? I can't answer them all right now, but I want each of us to pray and think about in our own live and in the life of our church: what are our goals, do we have them, where are they taking us, and do they truly matter.

Asking Everyone To Pray For The Direction and The Goals Of Antioch Baptist Church, Pastor Phillip