CATALYST

1. A substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected.
2. Something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected.
3. A person or thing that precipitates an event or change
4. A person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic.

What does all this mean? More to come VERY soon.

Tough Callings

At this year’s Willow Creek Leadership Summit, we were asked to mediate on, pray about and write down what God was revealing to us about a tough calling in our lives. What I wrote down was this:
“Greg, the American church is broken.”
Over the last number of years,
This has been the thing that keeps me up at night more than anything else
This has been the thing that stirs my soul like no other-my holy discontent
This has been the thing that I find continually comes up in conversation over and over again no matter the person I am talking to

And I want to be clear about what I am saying: I am not calling out one particular brand of church over another. I am not calling out any church of any size over another. It is irrelevant to me whether the church meets in a home, a store front, a coffee shop, or a large building. Folks, I believe that the AMERICAN CHURCH is broken. And WE are the American Church.

And yet despite this brokenness, Jesus is still in the business of redeeming a lost world to himself through the church.

Do you believe that?

Spiritual Castration

I believe we have allowed the enemy to SPIRITUALLY CASTRATE us. What does that mean you might ask? Get this, here is the definition of castration and I would like for you to not only think about it in a physical sense but especially in a spiritual sense.

Castration-Removal of the testes. The procedure stops most production of the hormone testosterone (a hormone responsible for MATURITY in males). If done before puberty, it prevents the development of functioning adult sex organs. Castration after sexual maturity makes the sex organs shrink and stop functioning, ending sexual interest and behavior. Livestock and pets are castrated to keep them from reproducing or to create a more docile animal.

In many cases, WE HAVE ALLOWED the enemy to remove something from the body that is helpful in aiding in our maturity and in developing as a body appropriately. And when it is removed, we lose spiritual interest and behavior. And since we lose interest, we don’t reproduce and instead just become docile and paralyzed with mediocrity.

And this castration, this paralysis is best exemplified in Revelation 3:14-20

Luke-warmness, mediocrity, devours the church!