A New Exploration

I just spent a weekend away in personal retreat. I had an amazing time meeting with my Lord. I prayed, journaled, read slowly, being filled with conviction, through a book with the title of "Awe: Why it Matters for Everything We Think, Say, & Do." Such teaching! It wasn't deep. It wasn't even filled with really new thoughts. It was, however, thought provoking. No one has challenged me so greatly in a long time. Sprinkled throughout different chapters were questions to evaluate. I could have just read through them, nodded my head, agreed that these were questions I ought to ponder at some point down the road, but instead, wrote every question at the top of a new page in my journal and explored my relationship (or lack thereof) to them. As I said - deeply convicting! Here are just a few truths that were hammered into my head and started moving into my heart.

• I was created, hard-wired, for AWE.
• There is a battle raging within me for where to focus my AWE.
• Only AWE of God will satisfy, but I tend to replace vertical AWE with a horizontal addiction. (Most often, I replace AWE of God with awe of self.) 
• When my AWE goes wrong, I will develop AWE amnesia. 
• My emotional life is always a window into what has captured my AWE. (As Yoda might say, "Educators they are...")

Here's the thing. We (meaning Christians, the Bride of Christ, the Church) don't do a very good job of reminding one another about the AWE of God. We have (for various reasons) stopped intentionally "commending [God's] works to one another" (Ps. 145:4). The generations which follow are definitely in need of AWE-reminders. We need to pass the baton of AWE. In fact, "every moment of ministry should inspire our AWE of God." "When our children are blown away by the glory of God, they will be pre-disposed to reach for His grace and submit to His will!" 

This got me thinking about this thing called Church. Does the Lord's Bride really know why she's been chosen, married, and, now, waiting for her bridegroom to come and get her? Do Christians really know how-to-church biblically? Not only are we failing to pass the baton-of-AWE, I fear we're losing our understanding of why we're here, and not "there" with our Savior-God. Maybe what has me thinking so much is an article I read recently on the "Dones."  The Dones are comprised of former church leaders, the "best and the brightest." These are the 20% who used to do 80% of the work. They are just done with church, and more than likely, will not be returning. Their reasons for leaving are varied and personal. Overall, they've just become disillusioned.

However, we desperately need the church being the Church. If we keep seeing church leaders walking out the back doors, who will be left to pass on the baton? Who, then, do the younger generations have to set an example and tell about the wondrous deeds of the glory of the Lord, the God who has been the hero in the midst of their stories? We've got to have story tellers to pass on a heritage of hope, and raise up steadfast faith in the next generation.

So that's my new quest as I begin 2016: A Look at The Church. What does it mean to biblically church? 

First lesson on the church: The church is meant to pass a baton of AWE from one generation to the next.