News Archive
Open heart surgery
With little to choose from for Saturday night viewing I ended up watching Casualty. I don't normally watch... given the setting of the show it's a safe bet that I'll be watching someone's misfortunate run-in in an accident that ends up in A&E with a bizarre relationship twist thrown in.
But I was dragged in by the storyline of a 'charismatic' church leader who was self centred and only interested in 'shepherding' impressionable young people including an 'anointed' young faith healer who he was mentoring (and lying to about his miraculous works). "God's favour is on you and our church is growing," he assured the young man.
I'm not sure what wound me up more... the negative typecasting of manipulative 'believers' or perhaps the fact that somewhere in the church someone has given the script writer the opportunity to write about his or her experience of church.
Don't get me wrong - I'm all for praying for works of power, signs and wonders; but the storyline showed up what the world will always see first... our heart.
No matter what words we disguise our actions with, our hearts will quickly be on display. Perhaps like "Bullhorn guy" in Rob Bell's recent DVD short, we need to examine our hearts rather than ask people to judge us by our 'works of power' or 'acts of obedience'.
Actually,
all this made me really excited about the NE1 project. A chance to
share our hearts with the community in a practical way. This
demonstration of God's compassion could lead to greater 'works of
power' than we might otherwise expect; but first and foremost our
hearts will be on display. Jesus had sharp words to say to the
Pharisees on this very issue. His message is still relevant to us today.