by Alesha Sinks | Nov 26, 2018 | Church Planting, God's Word, Just Me
There is a drum beating on my heart, pounding in my ears, and slowly, slowly growing in force. With each thrumming beat, the message becomes a little clearer, a little stronger.
We don’t get to decide for others.
We don’t get to decide for others.
We don’t get to decide for others.
<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55c38a57e4b00989028332c9/1542487669708-VTTFK2H6UGGECPO2B9MJ/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kMz1KsLLeiZAomckU44MpEdZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZUJFbgE-7XRK3dMEBRBhUpwu0TqNuiaV5_GOW_VJjc9kqE8XxJwTvFfpWwgCDn-pCoYcczD5B8JuixdjOl3LKd4/Decide.jpg?format=original" alt=""/>
We don’t get to decide for others.
We don’t get to decide what is hard.
We don’t get to decide what is painful.
We don’t get to decide what is heartbreaking.
We don’t get to decide what is loss.
We don’t get to decide what is sacrifice.
We don’t get to decide what is discouraging.
We don’t get to decide what is overwhelming.
We don’t get to decide what is too much.
We don’t get to decide what is exhausting.
We don’t get to decide what is max capacity.
We don’t get to decide when the breaking point comes or the overwhelm is too great or the weight is too heavy or the hurt is too much.
We don’t get to decide for anyone other than ourselves.
And that can be hard. Because sometimes you can put numbers to people’s pain and struggle and sacrifice. The problem is, you can’t put numbers on the impact those pains and struggles will have on an individual’s heart.
But we try.
Oh we try.
We add up dollars and hours and days and years and life circumstances to try to put individual pain and suffering and hurt and capacity on a scale. Neat and tidy so that we can know how to think about others.
Are they justified in their reaction? Are they hurting as bad as I am? Do they need to suck it up? Do I need to feel sorry for them?
Am I better than they?
Am I stronger than they?
Have I given as much as they?
Have I done as much as they?
Have I done more?
Are they living up to my standard?
Am I living up to their standard?
Are they good enough?
Am I good enough?
And the questions we ask and the measurements we take all come down to selfishness. We want to justify our pain and our struggle and our ability. We want to justify ourselves. We want to parade ourselves. We want to be seen as more…more hurt, more needy, more enduring, more sacrificial, more capable of handling life in all its pain.
We want validation.
We want praise.
We want sympathy.
We want honor.
We want recognition.
We want awe.
We want to be seen.
And probably, we don’t want any of these things outright. But we want them quietly. We want them known quietly in peoples hearts and minds, and maybe, we want to hear them spoken in private or written in a card.
We want to hear or maybe just see in others eyes…
“It’s worse for you.”
“I don’t know how you do it.”
“If that was me I think I’d have gone crazy by now.”
“You are so much more patient than me.”
“You amaze me with how you handle all this.”
We want to know that we are better. Because deep down we are desperately insecure. I know, because I am too.
The antidote for all of this is knowing who we are and who God is.
We are desperately broken, living in a desperately broken world.
We are completely loved and provided for in Jesus.
We are wholly flawed.
We are made completely whole in Jesus.
We are worse than we could imagine.
We are perfect and complete in Jesus.
“We are nothing. God is everything.”
Jason Sanchez
God is everything and so He is where we must turn to when we find ourselves trying to determine how others should feel. How we should feel.
We don’t get to decide how others feel, what others need. But we can turn to Jesus and be empowered to love and serve them whether we understand them or not.
Be blessed
by Alesha Sinks | Dec 5, 2016 | Church Planting
Church Planting is…church itself is…a gathering of people that from the outside looks random and disconnected.
Church is a group of mismatched, misfit people bound together in unity, struggling together in Jesus toward unity and love.
Church is a group of incompatible people knit together in love through the gospel.
<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55c38a57e4b00989028332c9/1480886546861-0KXO880W5LLMHMQJBVVI/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kCSH7g0YjtIW3_A7a29n3J5Zw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZUJFbgE-7XRK3dMEBRBhUpxMH5Y_tjBvGD1mF1IbMRwxTZ2QVT-KQyBoFiXYbs_RgAZDCXmWdDAdcoqkDqR2EsQ/ChurchPlantingis19.jpg?format=original" alt=""/>
I stood in the tiny chapel sanctuary and looked around me, a bit baffled. This group of ragtag people althogether in one room of worship, seemed so oddly put together. I felt out of place and right at home at the same time. I watched people’s faces as they worship and hugged and talked and prayed. It was so odd and yet made so much sense at the same time. It was familiar.
It felt like I had stepped into a different version of my same church home…and I suppose that is exactly what had happened.
The culture, the demographic, the style of service, the location were all so different than our middle-school-turned-sanctuary, and yet it was all so similar.
A collection of misfits worshipping together.
The fragile new-in-the-faith along with the aged in Jesus.
Traditional worshippers mixed with those who never thought church would be a place they fit.
Diversity in ages and cultures and languages acting as though they were all the closest of family.
All with that same hint of desperate need for Jesus and for each other.
All with a love and familiarity overflowing and baffling.
And I look around our little church some Sundays to see so many faces I feircly love, and yet if I step back just half an inch from my own inside perspective it looks so strange, just like the scene inside that little chapel seemed to me that Sunday morning.
Why these people? Why was this love so easy and yet so painful at the same moment? How these bonds so strong? When did this love so loyal form? Who could ever script this combination of lives lived together and call it beautiful?
Jesus.
He builds His church through a million impossible combinations and binds us together through the bond of love. It’s His gift to His church if we allow Him to work it in us.
Church planting is misfits and mismatches and odd combinations that work because of Jesus’ love in us and through us.
Church planting is a family knit together out of the choice to love who God has given with the power God has enabled.
Church planting is bonds of love that are beyond our own ability to create if we will allow God to create them.
Church planting is living and seeing the ugly and the pain and the hurt in people, then pressing into Jesus because there is nowhere else to turn and in turn watching Him knit you back to Himself and also to each other.
Church is watching God build His church and bond it together with a love that is surprising and cannot be explained any other way than through Him.
Church planting is a surprise of joy and love and family.
And don’t forget that for every joy of love and bond of family, there will be equal or greater pain and hurt and sorrow, but it will be worth it. It will be worth it in the moments you get to raise your eyes and see your family, all broken and mismatched and messy, worshiping together and loving each other in a way that can only be explained by pointing to Jesus.
Church planting is watching God build His church and bond it together with a love that is surprising and cannot be explained any other way than through Him.
Church planting is family.
Be blessed
by Alesha Sinks | Dec 5, 2016 | Church Planting
Church Planting is…church itself is…a gathering of people that from the outside looks random and disconnected.
Church is a group of mismatched, misfit people bound together in unity, struggling together in Jesus toward unity and love.
Church is a group of incompatible people knit together in love through the gospel.
<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55c38a57e4b00989028332c9/1480886546861-0KXO880W5LLMHMQJBVVI/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kCSH7g0YjtIW3_A7a29n3J5Zw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZUJFbgE-7XRK3dMEBRBhUpxMH5Y_tjBvGD1mF1IbMRwxTZ2QVT-KQyBoFiXYbs_RgAZDCXmWdDAdcoqkDqR2EsQ/ChurchPlantingis19.jpg?format=original" alt=""/>
I stood in the tiny chapel sanctuary and looked around me, a bit baffled. This group of ragtag people althogether in one room of worship, seemed so oddly put together. I felt out of place and right at home at the same time. I watched people’s faces as they worship and hugged and talked and prayed. It was so odd and yet made so much sense at the same time. It was familiar.
It felt like I had stepped into a different version of my same church home…and I suppose that is exactly what had happened.
The culture, the demographic, the style of service, the location were all so different than our middle-school-turned-sanctuary, and yet it was all so similar.
A collection of misfits worshipping together.
The fragile new-in-the-faith along with the aged in Jesus.
Traditional worshippers mixed with those who never thought church would be a place they fit.
Diversity in ages and cultures and languages acting as though they were all the closest of family.
All with that same hint of desperate need for Jesus and for each other.
All with a love and familiarity overflowing and baffling.
And I look around our little church some Sundays to see so many faces I feircly love, and yet if I step back just half an inch from my own inside perspective it looks so strange, just like the scene inside that little chapel seemed to me that Sunday morning.
Why these people? Why was this love so easy and yet so painful at the same moment? How these bonds so strong? When did this love so loyal form? Who could ever script this combination of lives lived together and call it beautiful?
Jesus.
He builds His church through a million impossible combinations and binds us together through the bond of love. It’s His gift to His church if we allow Him to work it in us.
Church planting is misfits and mismatches and odd combinations that work because of Jesus’ love in us and through us.
Church planting is a family knit together out of the choice to love who God has given with the power God has enabled.
Church planting is bonds of love that are beyond our own ability to create if we will allow God to create them.
Church planting is living and seeing the ugly and the pain and the hurt in people, then pressing into Jesus because there is nowhere else to turn and in turn watching Him knit you back to Himself and also to each other.
Church is watching God build His church and bond it together with a love that is surprising and cannot be explained any other way than through Him.
Church planting is a surprise of joy and love and family.
And don’t forget that for every joy of love and bond of family, there will be equal or greater pain and hurt and sorrow, but it will be worth it. It will be worth it in the moments you get to raise your eyes and see your family, all broken and mismatched and messy, worshiping together and loving each other in a way that can only be explained by pointing to Jesus.
Church planting is watching God build His church and bond it together with a love that is surprising and cannot be explained any other way than through Him.
Church planting is family.
Be blessed
by Alesha Sinks | Apr 23, 2016 | Church Planting
You might know my story.
You might know that I am passionate about serving God.
You might know that I moved across the country with my husband to help start a church.
You might know that I care deeply about people growing in their faith and serving God and others.
But as I sat in church a couple of Sundays ago…the first time I had sat through an entire service since my precious son was born eight months ago…as I sat and looked at the faces around me and listened to the worship music playing, I realized…
##Without God’s Spirit here with us, there is no point.
In the past three months, we have moved to a larger building, added a second kids class, nearly doubled our volunteers, rethought every part of what we do, “relaunched” in our new location on Easter Sunday, passed out hundreds of fliers, invited friends and family, planned and dreamed, and held a series of prayer meetings leading up to it all…
And yet I looked around at the faces, old and new, realizing that all our work could very easily be pointless.
##Everything we had done…all the hours and work and preparations could be completely wasted if God’s Spirit was not there with us.
And I pleaded in that moment, that He would be with us…that He would pour out His Spirit in blessing. Because I don’t want our work to be in vain. I don’t want each Sunday’s scheduling and set up and serving and tear down to be in vain. I don’t want each service’s worship and teaching and praying to be just words thrown aimlessly into a room of people.
###I don’t want our serving to be in vain.
But I find my heart so easily slipping into the rut of doing and serving and leading just because that is the thing to do.
And I find myself praying often that God would work through our efforts, that His Spirit would bring life to our doing and serving. Because all the planning and programing and preaching is good and necessary, but if we forget Who it is that gives these things their purpose and power then we are missing the entire point.
Lord, let none of this be in vain.
Send Your Spirit to work and move amongst us and through us.
Pour out Your Spirit on us and through us.
Let our worship and our praise and our service bring You glory and honor.
Accept our work and our worship as an outpouring of our love for You.
Lord, please do the work that only You can do.
In our service and our worship…let it be worth it for Your kingdom.
Be blessed
by Alesha Sinks | Feb 16, 2016 | God's Word, Just Me
“God is the most important part of the Gospel. And that is why prayer is so awesome. We get to access God, Himself.”
Pastor Daniel Williams
“God is the most important.”
<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55c38a57e4b00989028332c9/1455757803417-GC1HEWP5LM7C2VSJS4U2/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kKbYUC7ko4ep_M3O09c6DLZZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZUJFbgE-7XRK3dMEBRBhUpyUjG47s4lQqa3kGWpoR_DitVobFN0LmU1WvG_uZkJwkPR2-Fb7zwugw-NXPqcoGjo/image.jpg?format=original" alt=""/>
And I’m stuck by how often I forget this. It becomes about the praying, the reading, the serving, the giving… It so quickly becomes about the stuff and the doing instead of the One we are giving to and doing for.
It reminds me of early on in our marriage when we were having an at-home date night. I spent all afternoon cooking a fancy meal and setting the table just right. I wanted the perfect fancy home date for my husband, but by the time we sat down to eat, I was stressed and tired. There was a still a kitchen full of dishes to take care of, and I didn’t enjoy our date night or my husband.
I had made it about the stuff, about the doing for my husband instead of about my husband himself. From that time on, I’ve carefully considered how I spend my day before we go on a date or spend time together. I want to enjoy my husband and be enjoyable to him and connect with him personally, not waste all my energy on doing things for him.
And it’s the same in my walk with God. There are days I find myself drowning in the do more, try harder life, and when I look deep, I realize that I’m not enjoying God. In those moments, I wonder how to find release. How do I keep serving and giving and loving and reading and praying, but change the why?
Because the doing is good…so good and so important. But without the right motives, the right why, it’s meaningless in the end.
So I wonder, how do I change my why?
And I’m quickly reminded that all of this stuff and activity is about a relationship…a personal, intimate relationship with God.
“God is the most important part of the Gospel. And that is why prayer is so awesome. We get to access God, Himself.”
Pastor Daniel Williams
When I’m finding myself overwhelmed with doing for God and failing to connect with God, prayer is the first place I turn. Because usually, somewhere along the line, I’ve turned prayer into a box to check instead of a conversation with the One who loves me.
It’s a beautiful thing to realize afresh that I can pour out every thought and worry and question and joy and agony of my heart to God. He wants to hear every little thing hanging heavy on my heart and mind.
I can come to him in tears, in joys, in worries, in pain, in fear, in truth, in sin, in expectation, in suffering, in questioning, in anger…
He has born the sins of the world, so surely He can bear the weight of our worries and our fears.
But as I come to Him in truth and honesty, as I pour out my heart to Him, I need to listen to what He would say to me in return. When I do, I will find Him calming me, restoring me, loving me, and forgiving me. Though I might not feel His hand immediately, I am strengthened with the knowledge the He hears and He cares and He is good.
It is in talking with God through prayer that I find intimacy with Him renewed and restored and my faith in His care and goodness restored.
And I find myself returning again to this truth…
“God is the most important part of the Gospel. And that is why prayer is so awesome. We get to access God, Himself.”
Pastor Daniel Williams
Be blessed
