I AM He is; You are. Active Faith

Christianity is an activist religion, if I dare use the word religion in association with Christianity.

Christianity is all consuming faith, resultant of the relationship that develops between God and the disciple. The Holy Spirit of God is welcomed into the life of the believer, and the believer is completely transformed by the experience--weak become strong; fear becomes courage; weariness becomes excitement; joy is found in the work the leads to the victory that consumes what once was a spirit of defeat. The poor become filled with the richness of the Kingdom, and the sick find their strength renewed in the healing power of Christ.

Such experiences beg to be shared! How can one experience joy and not show it, share it? How can one receive forgiveness and not be moved to forgive? How can one receive so much and not want to give?

Our experiences in Christ move us to act. Faith is a verb. We doubt that anything can be done to overcome the evil in the world, until we encounter Christ. Filled with the experience, we realize that the power to overcome evil is within us. We can do as Christ has done before--we can give ourselves to the liberating cause, investing ourselves, all we have and all we are, in the cause of defeating the evil, setting the captives free, paying the debts of our brothers, salving the wounds of our sisters, making a new world in the midst of what has for too long been the enemy's domain.

The Spirit that lives within the believer is the Spirit of Christ Himself. He is love, He is grace, He is healing, He is sacrificing, He is power, He is the Son of God. "To all who receive Him, He gave power to become sons of God." He lives within you, and He is all those things. Therefore, you are too.

Believe.

Act.

I've got these dreams.....

The start of the new year is a good time to dream dreams for the future, and to see visions of what might be. I hope everyone has dreams for what Calcium Community Church might become and do. I hope you share them with me and each other, so that at least some of the dreams become reality. Here are some of mine:

I dream of the day that CCC becomes relevant to the lives of the "lifers" in our community. There are folks who've invested their lives in this community. I want our church to be completely invested here, too. This dream includes ministries designed to meet specific needs of people who live here all the time, including:

• hosting community events
• making our facilities available for things like weddings, funerals, elections,
• food distribution,
• after school care,
• and a jillion other things you've thought of that I haven't.

Comment and share your ideas.

I dream of CCC becoming the most relevant church for military personnel and their dependents living in our area. This includes meeting specific needs of those posted here, as well as those whose spouses and families remain here while they are deployed elsewhere, such as:

• Support groups for military wives
• classes geared to marriage improvement, surviving deployment and homecoming
• managing money on military pay
• childcare, mothers' day out, sanity ministries
• regular prayer vigils for safety and peace

I dream of CCC being home for more people than there is room to contain in multiple services.

I dream of CCC being a stronghold of faith, a place of refuge, a welcoming, friendly family that recognizes we are all sinners, no doubt despicable in someone's eyes, but forgiven, loved and accepted by God and His people here--no questions asked, no one excepted.

I dream of CCC becoming the most confident body of believers, given to hospitality and teaching, so that everyone in the area knows, if you want to be loved, if want to know about God, if you want answers to the complex questions of life, CCC is the place to be!

I dream of CCC being the more permission giving, risk taking, living out loud congregation anyone here has ever seen.