This morning, I want to share with you some insights from Danny Sims. Danny is the Preaching Minister for the Altamesa church in Fort Worth and his thoughts back on October 26th are ringing with relevance to me. Hope you are enriched by his thoughts today.

Some people see the church in relationship to other churches. They often compare what one church does, what it believes, and how it behaves to other churches. I left that line of thinking years ago.

I see the church in relationship with God and the world. Who is God calling us to be? Who does the world need us to be? Those are far more significant questions in my mind than "What does the church down the road think of us?"

Like the men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do (I Chronicles 12:32) the church needs to decide which kind of church we think is best.

I mentioned these five yesterday. Forgive me as I paint with a pretty broad stroke here. I know loving, well meaning people in churches that look like these I describe...

The church that is absorbed by the world. Both liberals and conservatives can make this mistake. Liberals can become consumed by our present culture and conservatives can be consumeded by a past culture.

The church that ignores the world. While we might love it if this technique was effective in reaching the world for Jesus, it just isn't. Most of the people in these kind of churches that I have known have been highly interested in what other churches think of them. These churches often become this next group...

The church that is irrelevant to the world. These churches tend to speak a vocabulary unique to them. They are concerned with issues mostly known only to them. Their issues are not engaged in the world but are intramural. They are also keen on being seen among churches but don't seem to care if they are seen in their community.

The church that battles the world. These churches see their role as soldiers in a culture war. They are almost always active in issues. Let me ask, "Is political persuasion the best method of changing the world for Christ?" Really?

Here is an example: In our church bulletin these past two weeks we've run an article about voting in the November 8th election here in Texas to support the The Marriage Amendment. This amendment defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Sunday I asked, "Isn't there a way to support marriage without so offending homosexuals that we could not have a positive relationship with them?" So much of the dialogue among Christians is about homosexuals, not to and with homosexuals.

As I see it, we must remain positive and loving as we engage the issues, even the issue of homosexuality. As I see it Jesus would treat and communicate with homosexuals a bit differently than many in "battling churches" do.

The church that influences the world. This is when God so profoundly changes us that the character of our involvement in the world is also changed. It is not either give over to the culture or build up walls, it is be relevant to the culture and be loyal to Christ. We can be both! Acts 2:47 says the early church was, "Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord was adding daily those who were being saved."

That's the church I want to be.