2510 Franklin Pike

You Are Not the God We Would Have Chosen

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Sometimes, it’s good to pray scripted prayers. Not all the time, but some times.

Sometimes, you have no words and need to borrow the words of those who have been where you are and voiced your words to God.

I think this prayer may soon qualify as one of my borrowed prayers:

We would as soon you were stable and reliable.
We would as soon you were predictable
and always the same toward us.
We would like to take the hammer of doctrine
and take the nails of piety
and nail your feet to the floor
and have you stay in one place.

And then we find you moving,
always surprising us,
always coming at us from new directions.
Always planting us
and uprooting us
and tearing all things down
and making all things new.
You are not the God we would have chosen
had we done the choosing,
but we are your people
and you have chosen us in freedom.
We pray for the great gift of freedom
that we may be free toward you
as you are in your world.
Give us that gift of freedom
that we may move in new places
in obedience and in gratitude.

Thank you for Jesus
who embodied your freedom for all of us. Amen” (Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers by Walter Brueggemann).

The Next Step

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

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I heard something that stuck with me. People always talk about how there are a lot of churches in Nashville. That’s not true. We have a lot of church BUILDINGS, but not nearly as many vibrant communities of faith. Some are dying out, some have lost their mission and sold out for an “I’m okay, you’re okay” theology. Some are too inwardly focused to notice that there’s a world out there dying to find a better way to live.

I’ve been a part of a new regional campus/church plant for a few months. Today, we got to take the next step. We held our first service in our new location on 2510 Franklin Pike in the old Acuff-Rose Building, adding to a building already rich in history and legacy.

I think a lot of people in Nashville might say they are Christians. They might even go to church. But not many in Nashville know Jesus.

They know about Jesus. They know facts and figures, Bible verses, and what they’ve been taught about Him. But they don’t know Jesus.

I hope The Church at Avenue South will be a place where people can meet Jesus. I hope this will be a place where people can come and find out people care about them, not just their spiritual destination, but their here-and-now lives. That there are people who will love them no matter what, even if they say no to this Jesus.

At times, the outlook seems bleak. It feels like bringing a plastic knife to a gun fight. There are so many false Messiahs and false messages out there, confusing and deceiving people. There’s only a few people who know the real Truth and their voice at times seems so small and hard to hear.

But I still believe that Jesus has promised that we will prevail. We will overcome. Ours will be the last word. No, I take that back. Jesus will have the last word and it will be at His name that every tongue confesses and every knee bows to the fact that He is Lord.

I can’t wait to see what happens next.