The Hero Inside

I was reading my new Collide magazine yesterday and came across an interesting article on why we tend to love the antiheroes of today. You might be asking, "Craig, what is an antihero?" An antihero is a severely flawed individual who is the main character or hero of a story. We find ourselves cheering for them even if we would never want to be them. The reason people exchange their heroes for antiheroes is because many of their heroes are flawless. We cannot relate to Superman because he is perfect. He has no real problems. But all of us, living in the real world, have real problems. So we gravitate to characters who have human failings and hope for some redemption to take place in their lives. The problem is, if they ever get that redemption and change for the better - we probably won't like them anymore. If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, in a way, you are an antihero. I don't mean this negatively. We all have our weaknesses because of the sin nature inside of us. But Christ also dwells in us and because of Him, we can do heroic things. We can make a difference in this world, not just for time, but for eternity.

CAP

Throwing the Box Away

The message of the gospel should never change, but the methods we use to deliver that message should be ever-changing. The longer I pastor, the more I am convinced that the church today looks very little like the one we see in the book of Acts. We have created a religious box and put God inside - at least the god conceived in our minds. The one true God cannot be contained by our traditions. At Kingdom, we are thinking outside the box and I love it. On Wednesday nights, some of our small groups are meeting in area cafes for Bible study and fellowship. Parents can drop their kids off at the church and be at their life group within five minutes. Having so many cafes nearby allows us to take our faith outside the sanctuary walls and into the community. Most churches doing small groups meet in homes, and that's cool, but studying God's Word in Starbucks or Caribou Coffee is just awesome. As the culture changes, it will become increasingly necessary to think outside the box - or just throw the box away. Churches cannot continue to do things the way they've always been done. If we foster a take it or leave it attitude, unchurched people will just leave it. If we are going to go backwards in our thinking, let's go all the way back to the beginning when all the church had was Jesus and the abiding presence of the Spirit of God. Let us remember that the simple growth plan for the first church was an emphasis on God's Word, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer (Acts 2:41-47). Let's start there and ask God what what he wants the church to look like today.

CAP