pastorrudytlc

Bill Hybels who is the Lead Pastor of The Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois tells the story of how he was driving one day, many years ago with his then 4 year old daughter Shauna.  This was back before the day that seatbelts and car seats were mandatory for children.  How many of you can remember back to those times when the only protective device in the car that kept you from diving headfirst into the windshield was your father or mother’s arm?  It is funny that I still do that with anybody who might inhabit the passenger seat almost instinctively because of how I was taught by my own dear parents!

Anyway, back to the story I was telling before I went on my own tangent- Bill Hybels was driving his Chevy Impala and Shauna was resting there right by his side.  He made a quick glance down to make sure his little girl was doing alright. When he looked up again, a car that seemed to appear out of nowhere was now suddenly heading straight at him. He had to make a split second decision.  They had one chance, so he pushed down not on the brake but on the accelerator as hard as he could.  The car roared to life and missed the other car by inches! Bill’s heart was racing trying to figure out how he could apologize to his 4 year old for almost getting her killed! How do you explain to her that he had to do this so that she would be safe in the long run? How could he advise her to make sure that she never did that when she would someday drive?  Well, while he was looking for the right words to come to his lips, before he could even get a word in edge wise- Shauna beamed right up at him and said, “Bold Move Dad!”

I love it!  Bold Move!  Sometimes life calls for us to make a bold move!  Sometimes love demands that we jump in with all of our heart!  Sometimes we can’t play it safe and we can’t look for comfort! Sometimes we can’t reason what must be risked! Sometimes the play calls for us to get out of the box and go for broke if we are ever going to have a chance to win! Sometimes running from danger only means we have surrendered to it!

I believe that we as believers live in a day when bold moves must become part of our daily behavior! There has been way too much rhetoric and not enough rubber meeting the road when it has come to being courageous enough to take church beyond the stained glass windows and beautifully crafted doors! Sacrifice should be second nature to those of us who have said with our mouths that we want to be like our Savior! To talk without the walk should have no place among those who have truly tasted of grace!  What if every follower of Jesus- no matter what church they may call their own- began living looking to making bold moves?  Do you think that it might just change the environment in a positive way?  Do you think it might even help others desire a God who actually has such influence in every day life?  And they’ll know we are Christians by our buildings right? Wrong! They will know it by our bold move of love with no strings attached!

God is singularly unmoved when people only gather to sing nice religious songs and listen to moving inspirational talks in these sacred beautiful buildings of bricks and sticks but do not care about or pray for or move toward or give toward those who are unfed, uneducated, unhoused and uncared for!  We will not be that kind of church that honors God with our words but then dishonors him with the actions or lack thereof in our lives! 

What should we give God in 2013?  Bold Moves!  What do you think it would do to the heart of Cape May County if God’s people got so involved in the community that this neck of New Jersey would be known not for the people who go to church- but for the churches that go to the people?  What if God caused more folks to connect with the V.A. so that Veterans didn’t feel like they were all alone and forgotten?  What if young unwed teenagers- who felt scared- knew they had someplace to go where they know they would be loved?  What if every time somebody asked why all this was going on, we answered with, “There is a God who loves this world and a Savior named Jesus who died for the sins of this crazy mixed up chaotic planet and he started a community where people who had nobody could be part of a real family?  What if every church service and mass that we have and we run every week was full of people who are being prayed for and cared about and right on the edge of having their eternities changed because there are bold prayers and bold moves going on all over among Christians right here?  Let’s give God what we he really wants from us- Bold Moves!