Transforming our Character

David & I have been attending [o.r] community for the last year or so. It is a church filled with honesty and raw preaching. I love this about our church. We started to get involved pretty fast after we uncovered what the church is about & what their vision is for the future church. This past month we have been reading in the book of Acts. Following the early churches perspective on what "church" looks like. Our pastor asked some hard questions to us a couple sundays ago...
" Are you swimming in a raging sea of Hope & Dreams in your life?"
or "Are you treading in fear"
He used dominos as a visual to represent the choices that we have made that has led us to where we are right now.
"Are my choices changing for God?"
or "Am I in the same place that I was for God-last year"

"Will the cycle ever change for me?"

Each decision we make is based on our character.

Do we have the character traits of God?

Then our paster peeled open a banana...he said" you never wonder what is inside of a banana...because God makes everything with integrity"
What about when you slice open a Christian(just an analogy-otherwise it would be gross)? What is inside? What is their Character?

In the days of the early church they didnt have cool websites, or smart marketing tools to get the word out about their church-the news just spread because God's message of salvation was being heard & people were gettting saved & lives were transformed for Christ!
How simple...yet why havent we (as the church)caught on to this idea?

[o.r] is feeling God's hand moving us to go....well, backward. Pastor Ted is encouraging us to have a Character transformation. With the guide of our church & the community of believers that fill it we are going to look under the hoods of our lives to get inside of our character & weed out the dark spots. Then we are being sent out into the mission field. Now that doesnt mean that we will not spread the news of Christ along the way, but we do need to see where our hearts are & where we are going FOR HIM! I am so excited for this. I know there are places in my life that need weeding out. Places I probably dont even want to visit or expose...but in doing so God will use me & mold me & make me transform for Him.

Imagine...Christ in You.
To have a mind like Christ.
That if we remain in Him, He will remain in us.

Like our pastor said" The shape of our character is the shape of our future"

If you want to hear more about what's happening at [o.r] community check out their website
www.orcommunity.com