When we were beginning this whole adventure, I had a significant conversation with a dear friend and mentor of mine. We were talking about what we as “Simple Churchers” were heading into when he made this comment, “Andy, just make sure you spend more time talking about what you are “for” then what you are against”.

When the words came out of his mouth, I knew they were words directed by the Spirit himself.

You see, it’s way easier to talk about what you are against. Anybody can identify what they don’t like in something; waxing eloquent (or not so eloquent) about what they oppose. The challenging part is discerning an alternative and then further, actually living that out. This is where the hard work lies, and this, it seems, is a place many fail to go. Unfortunately, what is particularly sinister about remaining in the “against” category is that it makes the heart a wide open field for bitterness and cynicism to take root - the harvest of which is rarely anything productive or good.

Sadly, when it comes to this “against” stuff it seems to be where much of the discussion within the Church is ending - the end result of which seems to be more bitterness and more cynicism spread from person to person. Now, I’m not advocating that there isn’t a season to clearly identify what you are against. Truth telling and honest evaluation needs to be a regular part of our lives (and certainly there are times where it is desperately required within the church). What I am saying though is this: lets not be a people that stay here for long. Rather, lets be a people that spend more time thinking and praying about and then moving toward what we are “for”. Let’s be honest, there is not much worse then hearing the broken record of the “against” repeat itself over and over. On the other hand, there is not much more invigorating then hearing the dreams of the “for” while helping them come to life (and, incidentally, the “helping them come to life” part is also crucial. Its not enough to just talk about what we are for - at some point we have to act on what we believe).

I’m not sure why I’m writing this today. To be honest, I hardly hear any “against” stuff flying around. Maybe its just a reminder. Lets keep talking about and walking toward what we are “for”. God is building something very special here. There is something so sweet and life giving about a community living in the ‘for”.

So, as a little reminder in the beginning of 2007, lets recollect what God has called us to be for. I suppose it is all summed up in our vision dream and prayer.

Before anything else, we are “for” Jesus. By the Spirits strength and for the glory of our Father we want to be a simple community of friends that love Jesus. We want to see him and worship him, we want to be friends gathered around him, and we want to follow him into our world.

We are “for” mission. Particularly, we are for following Jesus into the neighborhoods where we live and we are for enacting justice for the vulnerable and hurting of our world.

We are “for” participation. We believe that the same Spirit has equipped all peoples with gifts to bless others - and in this we all serve and act as priests.

We are “for” being flexible. We believe that the Spirit is always ready to lead us in new ways to new places. Discerning this requires much prayer - but we always want to be flexible so that we can move with him as he leads.

We are “for” unified relationships. So much is said in scripture about the people of God living together in peace, unity and love. We want to strive for this and in this live live of hope for the watching world.

We are “for” generosity. We believe we are a deeply blessed people. We also believe that in our culture money and consumerism are destroying us. We want to be a people that counteract the dominant culture around us by believing we have “enough” and instead determine to give and give and give.

We are “for” being an alternative society. Everything about Jesus and his disciples was different, and everything about the kingdom he proclaimed is different. It’s all upside down from the world around. We want to live out the different. Not odd... but different: generous, loving, kind, hospitable, passionate, free, united.

I suppose there are a lot of things we are “for”... you could probably rattle off a whole bunch. I just wanted to remind us of the few we all agreed together on during our 2005 year of prayer.
Walking through these things again, I realize how high the Father raised the bar for us.

Thank goodness for his Spirit and thank goodness for grace.

Let’s press on friends. We’ve only just begun.