Simple Thoughts for Building an Extraordinary Church
Building an extraordinary will require the world take notice. The extraordinary stands out. It becomes the light on the side of the hill for everyone to see. Let the church be on fire with the Holy Spirit. If nothing else, the world will show up to see what is burning.
We aren’t called to get the world to come. We are called to be so on fire with God and through God that they want to come. It’s God that makes the extraordinary.
Daily Inspiration and Encouragement
March 9, 2020
Daily Dash of Twisted Encouragement
Building an Extraordinary Church
Ordinary crept into my life. It crept into my expectations for my writing. It crept into expectations for my family. It even crept into expectations for my church.
Ordinary began to equate with normal and normal had to be good, right?
Wrong!
We are not called to be normal. As a matter of fact, the delusion of normal comes from a world determined to make you follow its rules. There is no such thing as normal.
I began to invest in the Word in what others might deem extraordinary fashion. I felt it to be necessary – dare I say, expected (and therefore, ordinary).
My newfound investment led me to an understanding – ordinary is a perception of limitations. The difference between the ordinary church and the extraordinary church is the same thing that differs an ordinary mountain, and ordinary manger, or an ordinary tomb from the extraordinary.
Put simply, it is the exceedingly, abundantly, above all you can think or imagine expectation, hope, and faith that makes the difference. This focus comes from a body overflowing with the presence of God because it chooses to be focused IN God.
The real trick is that the extraordinary church doesn’t happen through people. It only happens through you. When you choose to invest in God then God is revealed to you through the real church and reflected from you onto the real church.
Building an Extraordinary Church
If you want to live a life beyond normal then you will have to be invested in searching out more than is expected. If you want to be in an extraordinary church when you have to be hungry enough to invest in growing a heart focused on the extraordinary.
- Look for God at work. See more than what the world shows you. Make an intentional effort to look for more and to invest in the more. Moses could have seen an ordinary burning bush, but in his intentional effort to learn more about it, he encountered the extraordinary.
- Be willing to expose your heart. You will never touch a heart without exposing your heart and you will never encounter the extraordinary outside of the heart experience. Be open. Be honest. Be authentic. Joseph made the intentional choice of being his authentic self even when it landed him in jail for a crime he did not commit, but it was only through his authenticity that the kingdom (and his family) was saved.
- Dare to NOT compare. Extraordinary happens when you are YOUR best self, not when you are reaching up to be someone else (or to exceed someone else) – or reaching down for that matter. Cain compared his journey to that of his brother’s and the anger and resentment drove him to kill his brother. Comparison NEVER turns out well.
- Be open to teaching and to being taught. In other words, be a conduit for the Word as well as a receptacle. You have to be actively seeking ways to engage the Word and to engage with the Word. The disciples made a daily effort to share the Word together – to give and to receive in the sharing.
- Remember Who it is all about. God must be first if you are going to build an extraordinary church. God must be first if you are going to dare to live your extraordinary life. Jesus reminded us that the most important commandment was to love God with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your strength, and all of your soul.
- Understand what comes next. Love God first and above everything else, but then what? Jesus went on to say that we were to love others. God first. Others second. When those two things are in place then everything else falls in line.
- Release the need to fix others. You can’t. If you could fix others, I would have fixed my husband a long time ago. But he is not mine to fix. He is God’s, and trust me when I remind you that God can handle it. Now, God may not do it the way you want it done, but that doesn’t change the truth that He will fix it. Jonah tried to make God fit into the plan Jonah had, and look how that turned out.
The extraordinary church is built on personal and intimate relationships with God. It is that simple. Fancy lights or special music will not create extraordinary. Traditional meeting times or contemporary meeting times will not create extraordinary. Doing the things the way you have always done them or changing things up will not create extraordinary.
The only way to build the extraordinary church is for you to personally invest in God.
How much are you willing to invest?
FOCUS
Seeking the Simple?
There is a simpler way – a simpler way to live, to build relationships, to pursue your uniqueness, to know God more.
We have invested a lot of time and energy making it complicated. Let’s work together to strip back that complicated to something that helps you find your way and live it out with bold intention.
“Kathryn worked with me to tame my manic monsters.” Melanie needed to harness her uniquneness to overcome the doubts crowding her mind. We worked through the process of peeling back the layers of stuff piled up by the world, by the people around us, and oftentimes, by our own expectations.
Let’s work together to build your simple and balanced life.
Challenge for Intentional Actions
Building An Extraordinary
Look for God at work.
Expose your heart.
No comparisons.
Be open to teaching and to being taught.
God first.
Others second.
It’s not yours to fix.
Focus makes a difference in whatever you are striving to achieve. If you want to build up an extraordinary church then start with a focus on the One that founded the church in the beginning – the rest will build from there.
Quote of the Day
“It is simple. We just work hard to make it complicated.” – Kathryn Lang
It was designed to be simple. Between the stuff of the world, the expectations of self and others, and the bombardment of experiences, we turn what should have been simple into something complicated and complex.
When you strip back the stuff to the original heartseed, there you will find your simple life again.
What Others Say
Scripture Focus
Today’s Readings:
Acts 9
1 Corinthians 10 – 12
1 Peter 1 – 2
Matthew 25 – 28
Scripture Focus:
“If you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people THEN you should show it with praises for the One who has called you out of darkness into the Light.” – from 1 Peter 2:9
Ponder Point:
We aren’t designed to be ordinary. We are designed to be extraordinary so that we can reflect the Light to the world stuck in darkness.
Share Moment:
Make a list of all the things that makes you unique and peculiar.
Study Question
Dig in deeper to the Word to grow a closer relationship with the Word.
1 Corinthians 10:23 states that all things are lawful for you BUT that all things do not edify.
What does it mean to choose edification over lawfulness? How will it look or how will it change how we live?
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