Archive for June, 2008
Frequently Asked Questions
Once a week or so here on the Buckhead blog we’re going to answer some of the FAQs we get. Before we start, we thought it would be a good idea to ask our faithful blog readers a question: “What question do you have about Buckhead Church?”
Fire away.
Jeff
Question of the Day…
Who is responsible for your spiritual growth?
Go check Meghan out!!
Meghan Coffee’s new CD, “Songs to Sail By” is available for you to buy now!! You can go check out Meghan’s CD release party on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 8:00 PM at Smith’s Olde Bar.
Smith’s Olde Bar
1578 Piedmont Road
Atlanta, GA 30324
http://smithsoldebar.com
Price: $8 in advance $10 at the door
Meghan and her Band of Brethren will be performing songs from Meghan’s new CD, “Songs To Sail By”
Father’s Day Follow-Up
Your response to our Father’s Day gift ideas was overwhelming. (For those of you who weren’t there, you might want to listen to the message for any of this to make sense.) We talked about the idea of getting our Heavenly Father a Father’s Day gift. After all, when it comes to Father’s Day, shouldn’t we think of Him first?
Here’s a quick update on how you responded to the two gift ideas we suggested:
1. All of our available openings in the next round of Starting Point groups are full. Thank to those of you who took a risk and attended the Starting Point Orientations.
2. The Brookings Institution report about Atlanta having one of the highest child poverty rates among major U.S. cities, if not the highest, unsettled many of you like it did me. The good news is that our decision to do something about it by “adopting” an inner-city school helping children in need apparently resonated with you as well. Our first step toward that initiative was to purchase a pair of new, quality shoes for each of the students when they return in August. Your response was amazing. Not only do we have the money to purchase the shoes but we are now exploring additional opportunities to help the children. More details will soon be on the way.
God was honored in a very tangible Sunday. Thank you for being the kind of church that understands the great gift and responsibility of being children of God. This certainly was a Father’s Day I will never forget.
Grateful,
Jeff
Here is a little test. Ready?
What kind of tree is this? Any ideas?
No clue? I don’t have one either. I’d say, “One with green leaves,” I guess. Unless you’re an arborist, I’m betting that you, too, find it hard to identify this tree.
Try this one. What kind of tree is this?
A little easier, huh? The fact that it has big fat red apples hanging from it tips me off that it is an apple tree. In other words, we know a great deal more about what kind of tree it is because of the fruit that hangs off of it.
As we’ve been talking for the last few weeks about our identities, both as individuals and collectively as a church, a good question to ask ourselves is, “What do people outside of our church see as the fruit of our lives . . . and our relationship with Christ?” Similar to the trees above, it is hard to tell anything distinctive about our lives if we aren’t bearing the fruit of being a church of people that is authentically and consistently connected to Jesus.
This is why Paul wrote the following list of “fruit’ that grows from the lives of those who are authentically connected to the Spirit of God . . .
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
This passage tells us that the evidence that we are truly living as a church is found in our FRUIT. Are our lives joyful, even when everything doesn’t go our way? Are we loving and kind to the person in the office who is difficult to work alongside? Are we faithful to our God every day, not just on Sundays? Are we patient in the long lines at the grocery store and grateful that we have so much food to choose from? Are we self-controlled and do we use words to build people up rather than break them down? Do we have peace that God is in control . . . and that we don’t have to be?
If those outside the church don’t see in us the FRUIT that comes from being in a relationship with Christ, is it any wonder the church’s identity tends to become tarnished as it steps outside the building on Sundays? It also explains why a great number of people around the world aren’t clamoring to be a part of the church body. They simply don’t see the “fruit” in the Christians that live, work, and play around them that would entice them to want to know God.
This word picture of a tree bearing fruit doesn’t ring as powerfully today as it did to the agriculturally-based society in the early years of the church. To the hungry person who walked the dusty streets of Galatia (the city to which this biblical letter was written), a flowery, good-looking tree that stood along the side of the road but produced no fruit was looked at as nice, but entirely irrelevant and not useful to their lives. What good is a tree that bears no fruit to a hungry man on the road?
Similarly, hundreds of spiritually-hungry people drive the streets of Buckhead every day. To them, a flowery, good-looking church that stands along the side of the road, but offers no spiritual fruit (love, peace, patience, kindness, etc.), is completely irrelevant. So, they pass by and go in search of something else that could, hopefully, fill their emptiness.
It is the reason that Jesus, time and time again (see John 15) used agricultural analogies to explain how our lives should bear fruit, reproduce faith, and satisfy the hunger that exists out on the streets. He also reminded listeners that a branch that doesn’t bear fruit is useless, irrelevant, and, ultimately, frustrating to those looking for something more in life. Ultimately, being a “branch” means being connected to the “root”…who, for us, is God.
Bottom line . . . if we are going to be the church that God desires us to be, we have to be a group of people that is known for bearing tons of spiritual fruit and, most importantly, not just on Sundays when we gather. A good indicator of how Buckhead Church is doing will be how much spiritual “fruit” we see hanging off of our lives in our neighborhoods, offices, gyms, and grocery stores.
So, in light of this, and for the good of our little discussion here . . .
Which of the “spiritual fruits” listed above in the Galatians passage do you personally want to cultivate more in your life?
In what place (as in physical location…home, gym, office) do you wish to better “be the church”?
