We're All in this together...the film!

Tonight I went to a one night viewing of a documentary film called The I Heart Film: We're All in this together from Hillsong United.  It was all about the church being the church and going outside the four walls.  It was all about showing others what we are called to do as Christians. It was a very well put together film, but more than anything it was a depiction of the heart of God. The church does not exist to meet our needs but the church exists to meet the needs of others



I came away from it not with a warm fuzzy feeling, but with a conviction that I have a part to play in "His Story." A conviction that I can do something.

Jesus didn't die to give us religion, he died to give us love.  The deepest need of one man and one woman is to know who they are and know that their life is valuable.

Brother Lawrence in the film said, "Everybody can talk, talk is cheap." Wow...we can talk all we want until we are blue in the face, but what good is that going to do if it's not put into action.  "You can't talk about love, you have to show love."

There is something that was said by former Catholic archbishop Oscar Romero, and it definately strikes a cord. He says:

"It helps, now and then, to step back
and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying
 that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
 We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything 
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen."