Vision Sunday
September 4, 2022Pastor Patrick talked about the vision of the church in two parts: 1. changes coming and 2. church values. A video of the message is here. [Conversation Starters will begin again with the start of the next official life groups session on September 11th.]
Patrick mentioned that TimberCreek Church was founded to follow Jesus, find freedom, and fulfill purpose. With just a little tweek, this is exactly what the Torah is about: 1. know God, 2. be free, and 3. fulfill your mission to be a kingdom of priests for the nations (spread ethical monotheism).
1. Know God. The entire Bible is about knowing God. God wants us to know Him. Many stories and instructions of the Torah are about revealing God and his purposes and providing us a way to get closer to Him.
2. Be free. Literally, the entire Exodus story is about being free. But it's far more than getting out of slavery. One could argue the entire Torah is about getting free of "false gods," as the anti-pagan language of the Torah would say. We might call these "addictions" today. Be free of chasing things that matter less than God, like fame, money, drugs, ratings, etc. Be free to chase God.
3. Fulfill purpose. We must learn what God wants us to do in the world, and go do it. Everything you need to know in this regard is in the Bible. And I would say the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy) has the bulk of it. Specifics on how to live a better life and build a better society are there, sometimes buried in archaic language or ancient cultural norms to which we cannot relate. But once exposed, well, it's a beautiful thing.
After going through some structural changes coming up (going digital, family ministry priority, life groups, serve teams, a new physical space, and focusing on God's word in an upcoming message series), Patrick outlined TimberCreek's core values:
- Jesus is our message
- People are our priority
- Generosity is our privilege
- Excellence (not perfection) is our spirit
- Serving is our identity
Bonus
In Exodus 32:8, after the Golden Calf incident, God and Moses are talking (arguing) about what to do with the Israelites who are behaving so poorly. God says, "They have turned aside quickly from my ways." Why didn't God say "from Me"? Prager points out that even more important than believing in God is to follow God's ways, do as God instructs.
By the way, this illustrates a method Prager encourages for reading anything, including the Torah. Always ask yourself questions like: why does it say this and not that?, why is that repeated (seems redundant)?, what's missing?, and the like. This advice has served me well..