I just recently started reading Rick McKinley’s Latest book, This Beautiful Mess. Rick pastors a church in Portland called Imago Dei. He shares a story about how when they first planted the church he felt like they weren’t going anywhere and so they had these repentance meetings. The people would come and pray and repent for things like not really loving their neighbor. For not caring for people. For not really loving God.
What would happen in our churches if instead of calling all of our guests to repent. We repented first. I know that people who have been following Jesus for along time have repented. But really we need to keep repenting. We need to keep our hearts aligned with God and his mission and anytime we veer off or are pulled by our selfish desires or sins then we are off course. And it might just be a little bit but over time even a 10 degree angle off course can get you completely lost.
What do we need to repent of?
The other image that Rick gives that is really moving is that when Jesus called sinners to repent he didn’t do it like the guy on the street corner, he said with a smile and behind that smile was the knowledge that he had something much better for people to turn to. When we call people to repent are we effectively painting a better picture for them? Or are we showing them a picture that their current course is better so they don’t need to worry about it.
Just something to think about.
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