values

This is one of our favorite sayings on staff at the church. When values are present, no rules are necessary. When values are not present, no rules will help.

Job descriptions at work, rules at school, and laws in a country are not needed for those who "get it." They just naturally go about doing the right things. Somehow, they have learned the things that are necessary for success. The rules don't bother them, because they were keeping them anyway.

I have been reading a very good book called "the starfish and the spider." Part of what it is about is how every part of the starfish works in concert to fulfill its purpose. The major organs are replicated in every leg. Cut a starfish in half, and it doesn't die, you end up with two.

What does this mean for the church? The church should be an organization in which every member, every leg, "gets it." We are all working in concert together to make disciples and to connect people to Jesus Christ. We are not doing this because the book of discipline says that we must, we are doing this because it is embedded in the DNA of a Christian.

What is embedded in your DNA? If the government closed the churches, {I am not suggesting that they will} would you continue to be a Christian? If your pastor moves or dies, do you quit the church? What of the Holy Spirit is resonating within your life so that you just know what you are about, and innately go about doing it?

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.