Developing Faith

After the sermon I had a great conversation with someone about the need for church to be a place where one can explore faith so they can move from "affiliative" to "mature" faith. He said that he could recognize himself in each of the stages of faith development described in the sermon. However, when he entered the "searching" stage, church was not a safe place for him to bring his questions. When church wasn't open to exploring his questions he finally just said, "forget it" and his faith development went out the window for a few decades.

One doesn't have to think very much at all to come up with half a dozen or more topics that make people sweat (myself included) when brought up in Bible class. This long term member remarked that we as a congregation have become a safer place for such exploration than perhaps we have been in the past. To me that is evidence that we as a church are still adding rings of maturity to our faith tree! May we continue to grow.

Checking Our Vision

I thought the video we saw at the end of the service today was a good reminder of why we have initiated the project "Checking Our Vision." As we watched images of Clear Lake it occurred to me that God really has placed us in this strategic location on purpose. What are the works that he has "prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10)? As the present body of Christ we are to be about the same things Jesus was committed to doing when he was in his earthly body. But what are those works that God has specifically called us to focus our attention upon? We can't be expected to do every good work possible. Surely he has uniquely gifted and equipped us to accomplish some very specific works. I want to encourage everyone who is a member at Clear Lake Church to give your prayerful input and perspective so that together we can discern God's desire for our church. If you're ready to put your input into words click here. If you would like some more instruction into what we are doing and why, click here.