Refocusing Your Faith

Two recent posts at CNN’s Belief Blog deserve to be shared. I posted them to my Facebook, but want to share them here as well.

David Platt is senior pastor of the 4,000-member Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. He had this to say a few days ago:

We American Christians have a way of taking the Jesus of the Bible and twisting him into a version of Jesus that we are more comfortable with. … But many of us are realizing that Jesus has different priorities. Instead of congratulating us on our self-fulfillment, he confronts us with our inability to accomplish anything of value apart from God. Instead of wanting us to be recognized by others, he beckons us to die to ourselves and seek above all the glory of God.

Much good stuff follows. His church gave away their entire half-million dollar surplus fund through churches in India and helped meet basic human needs: food, education, and clean water. Then 160 families in their congregation signed up with the Shelby County Department of Human Resources to meet their need of 150 families for fostering and adoption. Talk about No Child Left Behind.

In short, this church actively loved others. Hmm. Where have I heard that before?

The day before Pratt’s article, there was a piece about Francis Chan, former pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California. Why is he the former pastor? “Even in my own church I heard the words, ‘Francis Chan’ more than I heard the words, ‘Holy Spirit’,” he said. He was worried about becoming “Christian Famous,” where the focus was more on him than on God. He deliberately stepped back to get his congregation refocused on what mattered.

How often do we as Christians focus on the wrong things? Does the color of the carpet really matter? The number of musicians? How many hymns versus how many choruses? Are you more concerned that people are wearing jeans to church or that they’re not there? When someone new comes to church, do you judge their appearance or welcome a new brother?

As Christians, we’re called to love people, not judge them. Serve, not criticize. Build them up, not tear them down. Some might say these are examples of radical faith. I suspect Jesus would not. I think He would say “This is what I meant all along.”

What are you focused on?