Change....Hope

What does our country need? Today is an historic day, President Elect Obama will be inaugurated. He was elected on the theme of Change with Hope. This resonated with people so much that he was elected against the odds. One reason I believe this message resonated goes much deeper than mere politics.

People want real hope that they can be confident in and can completely trust to come to fruition. Too many "campaign" speeches have proved empty. Too many pop-cultural promises of the "good life" have missed the mark. Too many self-help gurus have led to ruin. Too many material and physical guarantees of fulfillment have ended up flat.

People know deep down that there is something more, something greater, something that is sure and certain.

People want real change. They look around and see unrest, chaos, and disaster. They look around and see families breaking up. They look around and see violence destroying lives. They look around and see disparity in the way people are treated based on outward appearances, place in society, or height of financial ladder scaled. They look around and see financial instability in the very institution they thought guaranteed their future.

People know deep down that something can make a difference, something is more powerful than the pressures and challenges in the world.

The church, as communities of God's people who have real hope and are undergoing real change, the time is ripe for us to make a real difference in the world.

So, worldwide church, it is time for us to be who God has called us to be--a God-dependent, Kingdom-oriented, Mission-Minded community--bringing the message of hope, peace, joy, love, grace to the communities in which we live.

It is time for the church everywhere to stop competing with each other for the saved and join together to reach the lost. It is time for the church to stop gazing inwardly trying to make members happy and start searching outwardly to connect the unchurched with God. It is time for the church (and especially leaders) to stop worrying so much about words (missional, attractional, incarnational, etc.) and just be who we are called to be--Christ's servants, Christ's ambassadors, Christ's representatives in a world seeking hope and change. It is time for us to be "Jesus" right where we are, because the time is ripe for a real revival in the U.S.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5