1 - I will not confuse furthering my political agenda with preaching the Gospel.
2 - When someone's opinion angers me, I will calm down and buy them a coffee instead of arguing with them. I will listen to their point of view and kindly consider it, rather than treating them as an enemy.
3 - I will create a positive impact on my community, rather than being known as a sanctimonious isolationist.
4 - If someone is confused about God, I will allow them to search for answers rather than insisting that they believe blindly everything that I tell them is true. (In other words, I will minister like Jesus, and not like David Koresh.)5 - I will allow the church to be a place of beauty by encouraging works of art and new music so that people will understand the power of redemption just by being there.
6 - People who visit my church are as messed up as I have been in my life, and I will treat them with sympathy rather than forcing them to live up to my expectations.
7 - I will create a place where everyone in my community can feel safe and accepted, even if they do not believe as I do.
8 - I will do as much charity work as I can and be as kind to others as possible so that even my strongest critics will be forced to admit that I am a force for good.
9 - Tradition will not be valued over truth. (Honestly, I really wish that more churches still used organs, but I don't complain about it. Much.)
10 - I will err on the side of love, and will not pride myself on how well I push away those people who make me uncomfortable.
3 comments:
I love this, and it's something I needed to read. Thanks!
I agree on a lot of these, but nothing about Jesus's message is comfortable or accepting unless we're willing to lay aside ourselves from him.
Truth often hurts, but I think a lot of churches forget to be compassionate about that sort of thing. Sharing in someone's struggles is a far more valuable approach, in my opinion.
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