Sunday at New Passion was great!
I got to preach half my message as Batman.
Here was the opening thoughts to my message…We are less than a month away from Halloween. Halloween is the one time of the year where it is expected and celebrated to take a risk and be someone totally different than who we are. It’s almost like a free pass to wear that crazy outfit that you’ve always wanted to wear, or to try your hair in a different color. Most churches take a strong stance against Halloween, yet they promote a form of it all throughout the year.
A lot of churches encourage people to wear a mask & to dress in a costume, in order to feel accepted or to feel a part of the church. We overwhelm people with the burden of being someone they are not.
At New Passion, we value having an “Authentic Community” and we believe this will happen only by having “Genuine Relationships.” Both Authentic and Genuine mean real. So we are simply saying we desire to have a Real Community formed from Real Relationships. When we are pretending to be someone we are not, when we are pretending to have our lives all together, when we act like we have all of the answers…when we put on a mask and costume, we aren’t being real.
I already had this post planned and then I went and read Pete Wilson’s post today, so after you Join the Conversation here, go participate in his post about “Authentic Community” today as well (Simple but Not Easy)
Pete is right, “Authentic Community” is a huge buzz word in the Christian culture today. At New Passion we want it to be a part of our DNA as a church and as Christ followers. I have to go first. I have to take my mask and costume off so that others will do the same.
I’ve worn the mask. I absolutely hate that I’ve done it but I have done it. However, a lot of the time the mask was there to not show the level of depression and struggles with my faith.
In my opinion, we can’t have authentic community until we admit to ourselves that we aren’t authentic. Until we reach the point we can truly be humble enough to admit our faults, biases and mistakes we’ll never truly ditch the mask. When we hit that point we can reach out and help others and not care at all what the world thinks about it.
So I want to get there.
.-= Jason´s last blog ..Churches need to deal with autism =-.
Dude, I love the batman costume. I’m so stealing that!
.-= Pete Wilson´s last blog ..Simple But Not Easy =-.
Good stuff bro. I may steal that one too 🙂 We’re beginning to get some small groups going to build on the whole authentic/genuine relationships deal. Costume, mask…perfect illustration for this time of year. I’m praying for God to move through your church!
.-= Joey Faulk´s last blog ..Flood 2009 =-.