Getting Into God this Weekend…Really

November 2, 2007 in Connexus,Mission,Spiritual Growth with 5 Comments

So this is going to be a strange weekend for a lot of us at my home church of Connexus.  No church services.  At least no church that we’re leading or directly involved in.  It’s the only weekend Connexus has off, but let me ask you, how will you spend it?

I’ve been thinking about how I’ll spend it. I’ll be stuck on a plane.  I’m speaking at a conference in Vancouver on Saturday and fly out at…yikes…6:30 Sunday morning. I’m so grateful for the clocks rolling back an hour…. I don’t get back to Toronto until 4:30 that afternoon.  I’ll be fortunate to make it for my niece’s baptism (really hope I can make it, Mandy) Sunday night.

But this whole thing made me think about how we engage God.  I find it too easy to duck God.  To fill up too much of my time in busy-ness for Him instead of direct engagement with Him.  I’ve got no stats, but my guess is that many Christians spend more time reading Christian books than they spend reading the Bible.  More time thinking about God than praying to Him.  Engaging Him.  I think I’m guilty.

What if we just deeply engaged God this weekend?  Sometimes I think we can use church as a substitute for truly engaging God. We go to listen, but not to be changed. Rating the preacher over lunch becomes the highlight, instead of actually engaging how the Word is speaking directly into your life at any moment.

Even if you do go to church (and I hope you do), what if you tried to engage God? What if we all did that next time we’re in church? What if we really opened our hearts and letting Him speak to us?  What if we stopped judging the music as though we had to text in some rating about whether we liked it or not, and instead, worshiped God and prayed for the people around us who were engaging Him for the first time? What if stopped evaluating the preacher and just listened – for God? What if we pray before we went to church, asking God to speak deeply into our lives?  Prayed while were at church?  Prayed after?  What would happen?

Man, I find being quiet with God a hard thing to do. Because then I need to face Him.  And I need to see myself for who I truly am.

Can you do that this weekend?  Can I?

About Carey Nieuwhof: Carey Nieuwhof is lead pastor of Connexus Community Church and author of the best selling books, Leading Change Without Losing It and Parenting Beyond Your Capacity. Carey speaks to North American and global church leaders about change, leadership, and parenting.

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  • Dora & Walker Dobson

    Carey this "free" weekend is giving me the opportunity to attend Trinity Pres. in ORO & support the new venture they are embracing. I look forward to the December launch of Conexus. All the Best as you prepare and may Gods grace flow.

  • http://www.connexuscommunity.com Carey Nieuwhof

    Hey, thanks everyone for your kind words. It's an exciting time. On my way to Vancouver from Edmonton right now, but I'm thinking about all of you and praying about this great thing God is doing. Had some good time engaging God on the plane this morning before trying to learn my talks for tomorrow.

    Talk soon!

  • Joanne

    I attended Harvest Bible Chapel this past Sunday. I'd never been there before and really enjoyed it. Then, our small group has some worship time together of fellowship and worship in the afternoon.

    What was very cool was when I was driving to Harvest (it is rather near the Connexus site), I watched all of these cars turning off along the way: To Rona, to Costco, to Walmart, to Canadian Tire, to Tim's. And I started to think "wow, one day soon, with the grace of God, some of these cars will instead be turning into the Galaxy theatre to come to Connexus!

  • Trudy Harwood

    We had a great service at Trinity on Sunday. I find it very interesting that Neal Mathers preached on the same things you're discussing in your blog. Did the two of you discuss strategy beforehand? Just kidding! It could have been you though, up there walking back and forth. The similarity in preaching style is amazing, except for the notes.
    :-) One young fellow asked me where Neal's church is. I guess he's planning on going there.
    God bless you Carey, i'm praying for Connexus as well as Trinity on the 7th line.

  • Joanne

    Oh yes, and my husband and I spent time praying on Sunday for both Trinity and Connexus to be richly blessed and to both grow and flourish to the glory of God.