I think I’ve done a lot of complaining lately, and I never wanted to do that, or be that guy. I love the church of Christ and fully recognize her as the Bride of Christ. Something to be loved, cherished, challenged, and also something sacred. So this blog is not about how we have an issue with a Passionless church as my initial The Issues blog stated. I’ve decided to change it and talk about the passion I do see in the church, and how encouraging it is, and how much it motivates me to be more passionate.
Community is a funny thing. God designed us to be together. We are called to love our neighbour as a vital component of being a follower of Jesus. The fundamental problem with this command to love is that we need to be together, and yet most of the time we can’t tolerate each other. We come to live with each other and learn to laugh at each other and understand one another. A friend of mine recently spoke on this issue a little, and he wisely said, “We laugh at one another’s quirks and habits and the insecure and absurd within each of us. We laugh because we understand. We laugh because we relate. We laugh because I think if we didn’t we’d probably kill each other.” (Source) Community is what brings us together as humans, and it is in that community that we find purpose. We are all made in the image of God, and we all posses a fiery passion different from the person next to you. Passion like a flame spreads, and when we come into contact with one another passion will flow until it ignites us all.
This means we need a passionate person to start the fire. We all know these people, maybe we know 5 or 10 that have more passion then they know what to do with. We need to harness these people and put them out for us all to catch their fire.
I know a guy named Trevor that bleeds passion on everything when it comes to prayer and worship. If you give him a guitar he can’t but help sing a song of love to God. If you give him a Bible he looks for a passage to pray over. When I see him sing or pray I smile because he is doing it with so much of who he is, putting it out there in honesty for the praise of God.
I know a girl named Bianca that smiles more than anything else. You give her a group of teenagers and she’ll keep them entertained for perhaps days on end. She’s passionate about making people feel value and seeing people live to their fullest and tapping into parts of them they didn’t know they had. She organizes and prepares things to make others succeed.
I know a guy named Alex that is so passionate about Jr. High ministry that he made up a job for himself and gets paid for it. He has more energy then most 28 year olds should. He loves his youth group and desires more than anything for them to know God and to know God’s love. He has created a ministry that is changing lives.
I know a guy named Ben that sees people in a way I never knew possible. He’s passionate about people seeing God in way they never thought they could. He sees a relationship with God as the height of life, and he desires for every person to see God in a unique way.
I know a girl named Nikki that has a heart so big her passions can’t be nailed down so easily. But what I do know about her is that she loves people. She makes you feel so good about who you are and believes in challenging you to be better. She is going to be a teacher, and I could not think of a better place for that passion.
These people help to fuel my passion. They help to make me see my passion and they help to keep my fire going. Who do you have? Who in your life helps to keep your passion going? Who’s in your churches, your schools, your homes that will challenge, encourage and spur you on?
Passion has the power to literally change this world. It saddens me to know that people out there feel passionless and lost. The issue with passion in our church is not the lack of it, it’s the untapped potential of it.
Feedback: james.alan.brooks@gmail.com
Well said James!