| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Be the church” Our Bible verse for today: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.” Act 2:42-43 Our thought for today: “One foot in each world” I have mentioned before the name of Eugene Peterson and how I consider him to be a mentor of mine. Eugene was a pastor and the author of many fine Christian books, but he was also a pastor to pastors – in his later years he devoted much of his time and attention to mentoring younger pastors. And although I only met him once, I have learned much from his writings and he has had a huge impact on my life and on my ministry. One of Peterson’s best books (in my opinion) is “The Contemplative Pastor.” The book is essentially a “how to” manual for the pastor who truly wants to be a spiritual leader, as opposed to just the CEO of a religious organization, or the chief marketing officer in charge of peddling religious services to religious consumers, or a celebrity personality. In one section Peterson was writing about how it is that when the church is gathered, we often waste much of our time on silly, meaningless things that make little real difference spiritually. Our conversations often center on things like sporting events, or politics, or shared hobbies, or upcoming social activities, or which restaurant we will all go to for lunch after church. He writes: “With the vastness of the heavenly invasion and the urgency of the faith decision rolling into our consciousness like thunder and lightning, we cannot stand around on Sunday morning filling the time with pretentious small talk on how bad the world is and how wonderful this new stewardship campaign is going to be.” Peterson further explains that if we’re doing it right, as Christians we live every moment of every day straddling the boundary between the physical realm and the spiritual realm. We have one foot in each world. We live in the physical realm, but we enter into the spiritual realm through prayer, Bible study, worship, fellowship, service, and experience. That should be the normal life experience of any serious Christian. One foot in both worlds. And that should be even truer when the church is gathered. The spiritual dynamic should be electric and powerful as we all bring our individual deep and rich spiritual experiences and share them with each other. That will be the case if our minds and hearts are focused on the spiritual and not on the physical. It will be true if we are consciously and intentionally aware of and focused on both worlds at the same time. All this month we are thinking about what it means to “be the church.” As Eugene Peterson taught, on Sunday let’s focus on what it means to “be the church gathered” – each of us and all of us with one foot in each world, experiencing both at the same time, and sharing that experience with each other. God bless, Pastor Jim (If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville |
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