Devotion: Outrage & Purpose
Outrage & Purpose
Please take a moment to read Ephesians 4:25-5:2
In my social media post prior to worship last Sunday morning, I said I am more excited about this new worship series, Christians in the Age of Outrage, than I’ve been in a long time. I hesitated to say this because I don’t want to make it seem like our ministry is uninspired – quite to the contrary, actually. But the feelings I have begged the question, “why am I so excited?”
After prayerful reflection, I’ve learned my excitement revolves around my understanding and vision for what church should be. As some of you may remember, for about a decade Sheridan used “church growth principles”, also known as “the attraction model.” The goal was to make church relevant by moving it from being serious, fear-inducing and boring, to joyous and “fun.” The primary method was to steer clear of anything that would be controversial, as that would not attract folks. This worked well, but the criticism of the theory was that it lacked depth, and therefore was not an accurate representation of the Gospel.
For the last 12 years, I have tried to lead in a way that reclaims the church’s commitment to grow each of us in ways that matter. As the old saying goes: “The Gospel is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” In this series, we are working on the second half of that statement.
The good news is that Sunday’s sermon yielded more grateful comments, post-worship online views and shares than any sermon we have preached in years. I’m so humbled that Sheridan remains a community of depth and purpose! We are clearly ready to be part of the solution of societal outrage. We will need to learn more and pray hard, but hopefully each of us can be a spiritual grounded “Christian in the Age of Outrage.”
Gracious and loving God, you call us to yourself, which means you call us to be gracious and loving, just as you are. We are so influenced by the attitudes that surround us and our lack of focus on you shapes us more than we know. Come to us in this age of outrage, and purge from us our anger and fill us with your unconditional love, so that your story will become our story. We give thanks for the gift of our church family and we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Written by Pastor Greg Bouvier
Join us for worship each weekend in person on Saturdays at 5:30pm and Sundays at 8:30am, 9:45am and 11am. Worship online each Sunday at 9:45am on our website, YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Pastor Greg heard God’s call to Sheridan in 1999 and that began a journey that has become his life’s work. Having played a variety of roles as pastor of Sheridan, Pastor Greg was called as the Senior Pastor in 2011. He leads the staff and his primary focus is on the creation of culture, the overall direction of worship and partnering with our amazing team. Pastor Greg has been married to Rose for more than 30 years and together they have two servant-hearted grown children.