General Stuff

The choice between This or This

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Sometimes we convince ourselves that we’ve chosen something new when in reality we’ve just chosen the old thing in a new package.

I remember preaching at a church once that was new. They were so proud of how new they were. The leaders told me all about it before the service. They weren’t anything like the old churches that sang hymns, passed an offering plate, and preached a sermon.

Then, we went out and sang choruses, passed buckets, and I got up as the guest speaker and taught.

On my way home, I realized that they weren’t all that new. They were different, sure, but their service had the same elements as the others.

But God wants to do something new. He wants to do something that blows past anything that we could ever ask or imagine. If we’re just doing the old things better than anyone else, we haven’t chosen the new over the old; we’ve just chosen a new version of the old.

[Tweet “If we’re just doing the old things better than anyone else, we haven’t chosen the new over the old; we’ve just chosen a new version of the old.”]

We’ve just settled for the choice between this or this, not this or that.

I don’t always know what that is, but I am convinced that it isn’t this, and I’m leaning into the discomfort it takes to choose that.

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February 19, 2021by Paul Jenkins
Written by Paul Jenkins
Paul Jenkins is lead pastor of The Gathering, a community church located in beautiful downtown Albemarle, North Carolina. He's the author of God is My Air Traffic Controller and My Name's Not Lou. Paul is passionate about his wife, his 3 children, running, reading, coaching, leading people who are following Jesus, Swedish Fish and the Carolina Panthers.