October 1st 2006 Bride and Prejudiced - Message #3 Love the One You’re With

At the end of the day, our church is more about who we are than who it is. “Church shopping” is a common term among US Americans for finding a church that doesn’t bore them into oblivion. It’s a funny term, and probably one we should use with at least a modicrum of embarrassment, but it is functional and serves a purpose.

In fact, as a pastor, I’m not even sure I take issue with the idea that people want to “try churches on” in an effort to find one where they feel at home. After all, I moved to another country to find a church I love; but, prior to that move, I also served and loved a church that wasn’t my ideal. It was a good church, and I have a lot of great memories from my time there, but more than anything I loved that church out of a conviction that Jesus wanted me to commit to that church, rather than feeling like the church compelled my affections.

Whether people stay or leave Westwinds, or any other church for that matter, has far more to do with who they are than who Westwinds is as a community. I’ve believed that all my life. The solution to the life and health of a church community isn’t to cut and run when you find something you don’t like; the solution is to love and commit to the community in the midst of the things you don’t like - because it’s more about how we can make it better than how someone else didn’t make it right.

Orthodoxy on fire: organic monotheism
Sunday, October 1st 2006
with David McDonald