spiritual engineering
The naked pastor posted some great thoughts on spiritual engineering, and got me thinking. What is it that we want to eliminate from our communities? What is it that we want to promote?
I guess the first observation I want to make is that this kind of thinking is not entirely inappropriate, after all there are things that are not good for a Christian community. But are there people that are not good for a Christian community? Are certain types of people that should be eliminated from a community through one means or another?
This is, after all, the aim of genocide, or social engineering. It aims to eliminate certain types of people and thus create a better society/community. So when we are working to ‘grow people in the faith’ are we really hiding a more sinister motive? Are we really trying to make everyone into someone or something that we think is better?
Someone a bit more like us, maybe?
How do we encourage one another to grow into the person that God is calling them to be, rather than the person we want them to be?
“to encourage one another to grow into the person that God is calling them to be”…
1)we need to learn to accept everyone as equal under God. He loves us all the same. No-one, in the church or out, is ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than me. We are all different and God deals with us in different ways.
After loving God we need to love our neighbors as ourself. That includes valuing them, listening to them, respecting them, knowing they are as important as we are.
2)Pray honestly for God to enable us to do the above. Then we will want what God wants not we want…..
There is also a level of trust required which I think is missing in most of our lives. Trust in God as we often us our own reasoning to decide things rather than truly going to God for guidance. But also trust in one another. Trust that others can discern what God has planned for them. Trust that others will seek out God in all of their lives. Trust that others are doing the best that they can in their circumstances.