It occurs to me that Mt. Olivet is moving to a focus on being a relational church. In other words, our practice should be to value relationships over programs and time spent together growing in Christ over the mere doing business of the church. We should do this for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is that we can honestly believe that the best way to make disciples is through relationships with others. We do this through giving and receiving sacrificial love and through truly learning how to love God with all of our hart, mind, soul, and strength, and through learning to love our neighbor as ourselves. Programs and processes seem efficient and they are valuable and needed, but they should not replace relationships as the glue that holds a church together.
Over the past several months, I have been drawn on Philippians 2:1-5 and I really think that it is the missing key to how we are to have relationships with one another. It tells us that is we have received anything at all from the Holy Spirit, then there should be a result that turns us toward others with Christ as our example. We should be unified (remember we are "United Brethren in Christ") together and we should put the needs of others ahead of our own. We should consider others better than ourselves and we should be one in spirit and purpose. All of this would take a miracle, but with the Spirit of God at work within us, living this way actually becomes natural. Putting one another first - ahead of ourselves - is actually the normal way that Christians should live. This means that we spend time together, we communicate with one another, we forgive each other, and we actually see each other. We listen. We care about others beyond what we can get from one another.
So often, human relationships are based on us sizing each other up according to what we think that we can get from a person. But, God does no see us this way. He says that we each have inherent value because He created us and we are loved by Him. We should see one another the same way.
Church, how are our relationships? What about the people that you see in our church or community but you do not know very well? How might God use you to be a blessing to others in desperate need of encouragement? Praying that this year will be a time of relational renewal as we learn to value others, love sacrificially, and put the needs of others above our own.
~ Pastor Todd
