Craig Groeschel - part 3

The last thing that Craig talked about really has marinated inside for a couple of weeks now. In his talk about us being “practical atheists”- a practical atheist is someone who says they believe in God but then live as though He doesn’t – Craig mentioned a trap he had fallen into. He had begun to ask the question, “What could I preach that would bring people in instead of what would glorify God?” Oh man…this still gets me 2 weeks later. My first response was, “doesn’t bringing people in with preaching glorify God? Of course it does…right?

Well, here is where I am on this one. It’s about order. So much of life is that way isn’t it? First and foremost I exist to glorify God, period. The creator lives in me…his power in me has healed my heart, and it is He that says to me, “Spread your wings and fly John.” “I am with you and will never abandon you.” (There might be a song in there somewhere) Sure I want to creative. I want to be relevant. I love what Mark Batterson says, “to be irrelevant is to be irreverent.” The church has so “checked out” here. In its pursuit of holiness it has lost its proximity to be an agent for change. It takes proximity to shine a light…to be salt to those who need the flavor of God in their life. Likewise I as a pastor can get so consumed with proximity and leveraging culture to reach the culture (all good things when in the proper order) that I forget and fail at my primary existence which is to glorify the God that loves me so much.

Father, thank you for Craig’s talk…may you multiply it for your Kingdom and may it cement itself in my heart.