Excerpts from John Ortberg’s Book, Everybody’s Normal Until You Get To Know Them

 In certain stores, you will find a section of merchandise available at greatly reduced prices. The tip-off is a particular tag you will see on all items in that area. Each tag carries the same words: “As is.”

This is a way of saying “These are damaged goods.” Sometimes they’re called “slightly irregular”. The store is issuing you fair warning that this is the department of “Something’s gone wrong.” You’re going to find a flaw here: a stain that won’t come out; a zipper that won’t zip; a button that won’t butt – there will be a problem.

These items are not normal. “We’re not going to tell you where the flaw is. You’ve have to look for it. “But we know it’s there. So when you find it – and you will find it – don’t come whining and sniveling to us.” Because there is a fundamental rule when dealing with merchandise in this corner of the store. No returns. No refunds. No exchanges. If you were looking for perfection, you walked down the wrong aisle. You have received fair warning. If you want this item, there is only one way to obtain it. You must take it “As is”.

When you deal with human beings, you have come to the “as is” corner of the universe. Think for a moment about someone in your life. Maybe the person you know best, love the most. That person is slightly irregular. That person comes with a little tag: There’s a flaw here. A streak of deception, a cruel tongue, a passive spirit, an out-of-control temper. I’m not going to tell you where it is, but it’s there. So when you find it – and you will – don’t be surprised. If you wanted perfection, then you walked down the wrong isle. Things around here are “As is”.

We are tempted to live under the illusion that somewhere out there are people who are normal.

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A written page doesn’t make a book. A blade of grass doesn’t make a lawn, one drop of rain isn’t adequate to water the earth, one leaf doesn’t make a healthy tree, one grain of sand doesn’t make a beach, one warrior doesn’t make an army, one molecule of oxygen won’t sustain life. None of these things are bad by themselves, they’re just incomplete, small, inadequate because they were not created to stand alone. They were created for something bigger and better. Alone each of these things don’t amount to much, but when they band together something really good happens.

Today we are celebrating our fourth anniversary as a church. Four years ago this week, there wasn’t a church and then God provided the people and the means and the changed hearts and he created a new church that would be different. As a way of celebrating what God has done among us I want to contemplate the single most important reason why New Community is a church today, and I want to start that out with this line of questions.

 Why did God create you? Why did God create not just you, but all of humanity? What is God’s HIGHEST. . . purpose for you and I to experience in our lives here on earth and in our lives on the other side of eternity? I’ll give you a clue with this question. What is the one characteristic of heaven that will identify it as being heaven more than any other thing? 

You might think that its love, but it’s not. Love is a huge part of it, but it’s bigger than love. What do you think it is? Yeah, it’s community! Hence our name, New Community. Read the rest of this entry »

Quote:

Coming together is a beginning;

Keeping it together is progress;

Working together (community) is success

What is the number one thing God is trying to do in this world? What is the number one thing God is doing throughout the Bible? What is the number one thing that the church is about? What is the number one thing that God wants for you and for me you? What is it?

Is it salvation – to save people? No, though that’s a part of it. Is God’s biggest deal all about justice? No, again, that’s part of it.  Is it to create people who love well? That’s a big part of it . . . but that’s not fully it? Any other guesses? The number one goal for God is to create great community.

Four years ago this month, a launch team made up of twenty four adults and twenty children launched this church and we called it New Community. One of the questions that every new church must ask is why? Why does the world need another church?

When we launched in 2006 there were six churches in Lawton (a town of 2000); there were Twenty-two in Paw Paw (4 miles away). We had to ask ourselves the question, “Why in-the-world does this area need another church?” If there had not been an adequate answer to that question, we never would have launched.

Another question we asked ourselves was, “What makes will make us distinctive? What will make us unique?” We didn’t want to just be a rerun of some other church. We asked ourselves, “What would make this church an important contributor to the Kingdom of God?” The answer was and is community!

The distinct quality of this church is found in our name. When we launched it was about being a new kind of community, or rather, a really old kind of community that had been lost. As I look back over the first four years, I am stunned how community has been established and grown. We’ve made some incredible strides forward; many of us have grown deeply in our understanding of the significance of community in our lives. I feel like we’ve grown and I’ve grown so much. And yet at the same time, I feel like I’ve just begun in my journey to understand and to live into God’s idea of community.

As I look back, I also have to be real. This past year I and others got real tired. We trudged along just maintaining and not even doing a very good job of that. I took a month sabbatical, others took the summer off. We needed to refuel and refocus and as I’ve done that, I’ve realized how little we’ve talked about community in the past year, and how far some of our life groups have slid as a result. I see how some of our community has slowly eroded. So this morning, I want to refocus us on why community is so important to the life of every church. Community is why we’re here. We need to regain our focus on Community because there’s a lot at stake if we don’t. According to God, community is a key part of us to becoming who he created us to be.

On this idea of community, we took our cue from God. Read the rest of this entry »