Nothing is Awesome

Nothing is Awesome

Jun 18

So often we take a word in our vocabulary and shrink it and misuse it until that word no longer has meaning. “Awesome” is one of those words. It is used for everything. “Lunch was awesome”, that show was awesome”, “my shoes are awesome”. Awesome means to inspire awe. How do shoes inspire awe? Now that everything can be awesome then nothing really is. It is overused and misused to the point of losing all meaning.

“Church” is another one of those words and I learned tonight how we skew the meaning. As a group of people starting a new “church” we can sometimes find our discussions going to buildings, systems, programs and other actions and things. But something happened tonight, we all realized, with great clarity, that church is a creation of Jesus, built with and by his people.

It is not as though we did not know this, but it just became crystal clear. We understand that we use facilities, systems and some programs but those are simply tools in which help and grow and mature the church. The church would still be the church without all those things. Just us gathering together makes one expression of The Church built by Jesus. We are part of something bigger. This understanding of church keeps our eyes on people and not things. It changes the way we measure success. It takes the burden away from impressing and entertaining people.

The church is people focused on people. Everything else is just a means to get there. Now that is awesome.