“Christianity is not a system of laws and principles, but a pattern of relationships.”

A thought by Leonard Sweet, (2012-03-13) from his book, What Matters Most: How We Got the Point but Missed the Person (Kindle Locations 780-781). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

I have just come to really realize this fact. Margaret and I are in a new city and we are in the process of making some new friends; I in my Starbucks world and she in her work world but not in our church world. We have been driving 60 miles to attend one of the greatest churches in the world and sitting and being taught and challenged by one of the great pastors of our day but we have made no new friends. And he challenged us this week to the fact that this is wrong.

On our drive home from church Saturday night, Margaret and I both agreed that we needed to find a church closer to where we live. Pastor Rick said that each one of us would go through this year some kind of crisis where we would need a support group. We thought about the fact that if something happened to us, we wouldn’t even have a Pastor to call on for support or a group of Christians who would be there in our time of need.

You see, church is not just a great Pastor or great music but it is people, it is relationships. Do you know anyone who would be there when you are hurting or when you are in a financial crisis or relational crisis? Do you? Oh you may have a lot of friends but they may be friends who don’t even know how to pray, I mean really pray and there are times I need someone to really pray for me. I don’t mean over the phone but right there beside my sick bed or there in my front room when my life is falling apart or when I have lost my job or whatever. Do you have friends like that?

Well we are headed to PazNaz this week. It is a large church and we will at some point break it down to a small group but at least it is closer to home. We will also transfer our membership from New York. It is a start. It is what we want to do and we need to do.

What about you?

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