Image by Giara via Flickr

I was reading a blog at Out of Ur about Virtual Church – you know, the trend to put church services online.  And I do agree that while the main problem with a virtual church is the inability to relate to others, which is very difficult in an online church service, the discussion about it got me thinking. In particular this sentence got my attention – “And while internet campuses provide a great sermon delivery vehicle, and even allow you to virtually raise your hand in response, what they don’t do is allow you to be known and missed”

The problem I have unfortunately seen is people not being “known and missed” in a physical church – with real walls and real people.  The larger the church the easier it becomes for people to fall through the cracks. Real people with real feelings and real needs – their absence becomes unnoticed among the throng and when they may need some people from their church the most, their church fails them in their need.  It’s not on purpose or by any plan – it just happens.

Think back – see if there is someone that you have lost track of. Someone that used to be in your life every Sunday. You know what to do.

Steve

Image via Wikipedia

Our new motto for LifeQuest Church is “Where the past doesn’t determine your future”.

So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  (2Co 5:17)

So many times we look at others and instead of seeing the new creation we still see what the person used to be.  We see the alcoholic, the druggie, the sex addict, the addictions they had, the liar, etc…    Even when we look at ourselves we do this – we think about how we can’t do something because of our imagined limitations or we worry about what others will think of us.

But God doesn’t care about any of that, the past that is. I think he does care that we still see ourselves and others as we used to be.  God doesn’t care about our past – I don’t think that God even remembers what we were,not that he can’t remember but he chooses to remember and see us as he has made us to be and not to see us as we were.

Our future is a blank page that we can write. Our past decisions don’t decide what goes on that page. our old addictions don’t decide, the dependencies we had don’t decide.  Our walk with Jesus will help us write what goes on that page and it may contain a future that you can’t even imagine right now.

Steve