tough issues.

<>Earlier this week, I sat down with our campus minister (CM) and we were talking with another guy about this campus ministry and what it means to be a leader. Our CM played the word association game with this guy–Christians and homosexuality, Christians and drinking, Christians and dating relationships. Our CM tried to convey the idea that we’re a community of faith, and we’re not going to restrict someone’s ministry to a set of rules they have to live by. Ultimately everyone is responsible to God for him/herself, but this didn’t seem to be good enough.

I heard a pastor speak tonight and he said something that I thought was really good. His talked was based off a chapter in Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli. He had this simple quote, “Are you ‘making music,’ or only avoiding mistakes?” I got to thinking after these two conversations, what are we doing? Why are we spending so much time worrying about following a set of guidelines, principles and do’s and do not’s and not worrying about helping the people around us?

The second thought was this, “Spiritual growth is more than a system and more than following certain principles.” The church in Corinth had some pretty crazy stuff going on, but God still used them and Paul still spent time with them helping them to see their purpose.

I don’t know why we don’t spend more time looking for our purpose instead of worrying about following a bunch of rules.