Content In Context

Why is it that during the weeks where the most pressure is applied, the clearest thoughts emerge?

This week, my son is flying out to CA, I'm driving back home to Macon to preach at my aunt's funeral, Memorial Day weekend is here with a Gideon speaker to work into the mix, I have a deacon in the hospital... yeah, busy.

But yesterday, as I was talking with our associate pastor, it was if something of a principle I can apply again and again leaped out of the conversation.

Content in Context

No, I'm not applying this in the hermeneutical sense, though it's something I practice and insist on in our teachers. What I realized was that the very way that our small Body carries out its mission where we are - in our Jerusalem - has to fall within the same parameters.

My friend was talking about summer plans for the youth he has responsibility for, and really struggling to find something for them that would not just be an event or a program. He wanted to lead them into an experience that mattered with lasting effects spiritually. We reviewed past efforts - mission trips to New Orleans, youth retreats, lock-ins - the usual, then he said this "do you ever think that maybe we are trying to do what everyone else does just because they do it?"

Bingo! Eureka! Doh!

New Hope Baptist Church is a unique group of people, drawn together by the Holy Spirit for His use at a specific geographic location within a specific period of time. Why is it when we plan for its "feeding and care", we look first to see what others are doing instead of spending most of our time examining just where we ARE?

We agreed to pray about what God had given us to use for His glory right here, and ask the Holy Spirit to direct us out from who we are to who we've been placed within - our neighborhoods and our area. That's a great start I think to applying our "Content" (what God has given us, and how He's equipped us for His use) in our "Context" (our ministry area).

This will probably mean that we are even more off the map when it comes to mirroring traditional SBC practices/programs. So be it. I would love to be more like the church in the book of Acts, flying solely by the wind of the Spirit.