This week we continued the “With all my heart” series at actionchurch. Jesus said the most important things that we can do in life is to Love God with all our heart…and love our neighbor as ourselves. (Love God-Love People). But what happens when conflict comes? What happens when people who love each other fall into conflict and can no longer agree…no longer communicate? This happened to the first church in Acts 6:1-7. How could a group of people who so clearly loved God and Loved people fall into conflict? The answer that Conflict among people…even people who love each other, is as natural as falling in love. It happens.
We can’t avoid conflict…but we can learn how to deal with it by loving God and loving people. People are not “disposable”. If we love someone we don’t run away when conflict comes. If we love someone we act like a “buyer and not a renter”. When conflict happen in the first church, the appostles called a meeting to open lines of communication, admited that things were not working ,prayerfully made changes, and God used the Conflict to bring Growth.
It’s funny how after two years of “doing” actionchurch on Sunday mornings our crew makes the whole set up and tear down thing seamless and fairly simple. We had several crew members missing this week and everything seemed “difficult”. Just another example of how the church is about ALL parts of the “body” working together…everyone is necessary to make things go smoothly. Thank you to everyone on the actionchurch/actionkidz crew…you guys are amazing.
We’ve seen a lot of really good bands/musicians at actionchurch…but once and a while a band comes along that surprises me. Between Blue seemed like just a really well mannered, and very young bunch of guys…but when they hit sound check I knew we were in for a treat. We will be having these guys back…and you will not want to miss them next time they pass through. I’m not hip enough to discribe them musically :-) but wow…very cool.
Big thanks to Steve for mic-ing up more percussion than we’ve ever had onstage…and making the mix sound great.
This week I challenge all of us to show love to people we have conflict with…to love God and love people, especially when it gets messy. I have NO doubt God will give ALL of us opportunity to do that this week. :-) I’d love to hear your stories. Let’s say a prayer for each other…and let the “Messiness” begin.