Traci has been working with different groups of people on a project. She took old CD’s and DVD’s we had left over at Life Bridge, painted them, added a marble and plastic cap to them, turning them into tops. They’re really cool. They spin much longer than any top I remember having as a child. They handle resistance better, the connection to the ground is more stable, and, best of all, we built them using materials we already had available to us. So, they spin and spin and spin and spin. These tops will be one of the many gifts we send overseas through Operation Christmas Child.
Over the past 12 years, now, we have been designing and creating a “better top” of sorts. I’ve long since recognized that the our ways of empowering and equipping people to walk together with God have very real limitations. We, the church in the West, have fallen into a style of being and doing church that makes it too easy to fall over and grind to a halt. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to leave this life and look back only to find that my life’s work fell over and ground to a halt so easily. No, we needed to design a better top. Interestingly enough, we don’t need to build a better top. We simply need to build the top using the Original Builder’s design.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved--even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NIV)
This Sunday (November 15, 2015), I will have the privilege of sharing a vision for Life Bridge Christian Church as it moves forward. The vision may sound similar to those you have heard before but, for those of you who have been paying attention, you will notice a real difference: It’s time to make the tops.
I hope you can join us this week. It will be exciting to see where God takes us from here. Services are at 9am and 11am Central Time here at our local building. Should you be away at that time, you can watch one of the services Live (well, with a 40 second delay) at http://lifebridgealive.com/EncounterGod/Online. Should you miss it, you will be able to watch the service this week at the same link. I hope to see you there.
