you might be...

Here is a great list that I found through Emerging Grace. It's by Larry Chouinard.

You Might Have Missional Tendencies If . . .
1. You talk more about the Kingdom of God than you do your local church.

2. You are more in awe of the radical Jesus than you are the charisma of your pastor/preacher.

3. You feel a greater sense of community in the parking lot than in the pews.

4. You've oftened muttered leaving a 'church service', "there's got to be more to it than this".

5. You've often wondered why the church couldn't meet in the park or Starbucks once in a while.

6. You've cringed at the coldness and indifference of church people when someone shows up at our 'church service' that looks and smells different.

7. You've wondered why Christians only hang-out with Christians when Jesus seemingly never missed an opportunity to party with the riff-raff.

8. You've wondered what God does the other six days of the week.

9. You've had the urge to spill your guts to the next artificial inquiry, "I'm fine, how are you?".

10. You've had the compelling urge to join the preacher at the podium to present an alternative perspective.

11. You've wanted to fall to your knees while everyone stood for another happy-clappy song.

12. You've wanted to close a 'service' by shouting from your pew, "NOW WHAT?"

13. You sometimes find more spiritual depth and authenticity in the lives of those who do not go to church.

lesson learned #6

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often looks so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

Lesson learned:  don’t let the closed doors keep you from looking toward the open ones. 

 

I don’t know if Thomas Jefferson is the one who coined that phrase or not, but I’ve used it to describe the closing of one event/season in our lives and I’m sure that you have too.  But what I hadn’t seen until today was the rest of the quote and it maybe more true than the first part. 

 

Those of us who have walked through loss, whether it is a job, relationship, church, or death, find ourselves sometimes at the closed door.  Depending on the day, we might pound our fists upon it until our hands bleed, cursing it for closing just when it did.  Maybe simply give up looking anywhere else, because so desperately had placed all of our hopes and dreams on that open door that we cannot believe anything ever good can come from another door.    

 

But this is where we fail.  This is when we miss the point.  God never says no to one thing, without saying yes to another.  Granted, it may not be what we have planned or wanted even, yet the Father’s truest intention is for our good.  Why sit us at the closed door when he who can open the doors no man can shut has something more perfect in mind for us?

 

Let us look away from the closed door.  Unless the Lord opens it, it will never open.  Our stare, our camping out by its frame will not make it open any faster.  Let us look away, to him…and see if he has not done what he has promised:  to give us hope and a future, and a better one at that!  (Jeremiah 29:11)