Candy Coated Donuts

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2  

 

As I mentioned last week, it represented a major paradigm shift for the Wrights:  sustained, heavier than air flight.  As a kid growing up, I learned that if I jumped off the roof of the garage, no matter if I had a cool Superman cape on or not, I would fall to the ground…and hard.    The biggest hurdle to overcome is impossibility.   I stepped into a Tim Horton’s this week for a meeting.  Thought I’d get a little something before we got started so I glanced at the case.  That’s when I saw the world’s most decadent, over-the-top confection…a cream-filled, chocolate icing topped long john covered with crushed M and M’s.  No way!  How can they get away with that?  Candy covered donuts?  My modern, healthy food scruples began to crawl.  Then I thought to myself, “Why do I have a problem with this?  This breaks my paradigm.”   So then I thought, “What makes a paradigm?”  I concluded at least in the moment, my values:  whole grain over white flour, complex carbohydrates over refined sugars, light protein over empty calories, etc., etc.  My wife has trained me well.   Got me thinking, “What are the values I hold onto that keep me from embracing more kingdom values?”    I made a list of things I’ve seen us start to invert for the sake of Christ as I have traveled the district…   The value of one lost over 99 in the fold.  Do a majority of our resources go toward ministering to those in the pew or those still on the streets?  Unfortunately, many congregations today in North America are inverted, and thus one could say, Anti-Christ.  Many in Miami Valley however are shifting.   Humility over entitlement.  Washing feet over climbing the clergy collared ladder.  There is no ideal appointment.  The best appointment is usually the one that’s waiting where we are after we give it our best leadership.  So many of our colleagues are committing to slogging it out for the long, hard-fought haul.  Way to go!   Outreach over building maintenance.  While many are still trying to do both, push may come to shove and we won’t have any other choice but to go missional.  The economy may not ever be what it was.  How should we organize ourselves for the new normal?   With what values do you struggle?   I heard of a church recently that flipped their sanctuary.  Instead of everything focused on the front altar area, they flipped it.  Now, the rear is the old altar, where people come in, and where handicapped seating is now provided.  Everyone faces just the opposite, instead of the high and holy place they turned toward their old doors…to the world.    What new values do you need to embrace to be even better, kingdom agents of change and transformation?   Thriving in Christ with you,   Chris