Imperfect People

People matter. All of them (John 3:16; Luke 15). God wouldn’t have given up His only Son for the whole world if He didn’t love all people. As far as we can tell, and scripture confirms it, all people are broken and sinful (Genesis 3: Romans 3:23) — the folks at Conroe Bible Church are no exception. Since God loves broken, sinful people, we will too. There is something beautiful and powerful in the combination of the perfect love of God and imperfect people.

All of us are caught in a struggle between the brokenness of the flesh and the purity of a born-again spirit. We are daily “crawling toward the Light” in the direction of faith in God, obedience to His instruction, and love for Him and others. We are not content to remain as we are, but desire to pursue Christlikeness. Throughout the scriptures, we continually see a loving God carry out His work by using imperfect people. At CBC, there is no expectation that you are a perfect person, that your life is nice and tidy and successful, or that you have overcome all your struggles and failures.  There is, however, an expectation that you are imperfect, and that you are in need of a loving and gracious God. That makes us all alike: worth loving and accepting (Romans 15:7).

We believe imperfect people should speak life and love to the people God has died for. We should join hands in the name of a loving God rather than shake fists or point fingers in the name of judgement. We are imperfect people, and together we are trusting in and following a perfect God.

Life-changing Power

The love of God has the power to change lives. Period. It is great news! We are not contained by our imperfections. The powerful love of God is exemplified in passages like Mark 6, Luke 15, and 1 Thessalonians 2, and John 3:16.

Of course, we’re going to try to do a wonderful job of teaching and training, and even do well in how we treat others, in service, worship together, and spurring one another on toward love and good deeds. All of these things are worth doing, but as hard as we try, even with great motives and pure hearts, these things don’t transform a person’s life. The gospel of God’s love through Jesus Christ does (Romans 12; 2 Corinthians 3).

At the center of everything we do and think here at CBC is the power of the love of Jesus Christ to change lives. We utterly depend on this. At the center of God’s love is the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died for us, and that’s why we boldly preach it (Romans 1:16). We are a church full of imperfect people, and therefore we lean completely on the love and grace of Jesus, our Savior.

The life-changing power of God’s love transcends social trends, gimmicks, religiosity, and self-help nonsense. It literally has the power to change lives, soften hearts, heal brokenness, forgive sins, and offer eternal life. Because of God’s love, we are changed from the inside out.

The power of God’s love draws us toward devotion to Him, and to following Jesus. The work of disciple-making is teaching and encouraging one another to bring our lives into full submission to the authority of Jesus Christ and His Word, which grows and transforms us. As we teach one another Jesus’ commands (Ephesians 4, 5), lead one another toward love and obedience (1 Corinthians 11:1), and submit to His headship (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:17-18; 2:9-10), God’s love is at work enriching our community and making us more Christ-like (Ephesians 4:16).

Authentic Comm(Unity)

From the very beginning of the story of Scripture, it has been clear we were created for and invited into relationship, into community with God (Genesis 3:7-8). Furthermore, God’s design is for us to live in community with Him and with one another; being fully known, and knowing fully (John 17:20-26; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:8). We were made for community, and we need it. We need not bother with masks or pretending we are something we are not. There is freedom to lay down facades in authentic community, not because we are satisfied with our failures and sin, but because as imperfect people we each are being sanctified by the life-changing power of God’s love.

Healthy and loving relationships are life-giving (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32). For those God is healing, a healthy church community is an experience of a loving, caring, accepting family. A healthy community is the place we are able to extend love and support and healing to others, and where we are able to practice apprenticeship to Jesus together, falling down and helping one another up — learning to practice truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Healthy relationships are not distracted by resentful attitudes when circumstances require personal sacrifice for the greater good of the community, rather we lovingly and joyfully choose to give ourselves generously (2 Corinthians 8, 9). By sacrificially loving and serving each other, we are edifying the Body to which we belong, our individual families, our neighborhoods, and beyond.

Authentic community doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There is intentional movement toward unity (Ephesians 4:3; 1 Corinthians 12:13; John 17:22-23). When we commit to intentional engagement with one another, daily reliance upon God, accepting and bearing one another’s burdens, dealing with one another with gentleness and respect, and choosing grace, we flesh out the unity we posses in Christ (Romans 12:9-21; 1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 6:2). When we choose unity rather than insisting on uniformity or conformity (John 21:22), we create authentic relationships, authentic community (Acts 4:32-5:11; Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14).

We were made for authentic community, and authentic community is born out of unity.

100% Employment

Each son and daughter of the King has been equipped with a powerful gifting (that we each will use in unique ways) for the edification of the Body of Christ (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-7; Ephesians 2:10; 4:7-13). Scripture says this manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Additionally, each individual has uniquely developed practical skills that have been gained throughout life.

We are a family full of imperfect people armed with the life-changing power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:5-7). We choose to live in authentic community, which means there are no benchwarmers or spectators. Everyone has a role to play, and every role is valuable — each gift of the Spiritual and practical skillset can bring a loving and positive impact to the Body of Christ. We want our community of imperfect people to be fully employed in this type of work — the work of ministry — because we are incomplete in function and form without everyone actively participating.

You are needed, and God himself has equipped and designed you for the task. While it might take some time and effort to figure out how each of us is gifted and uniquely designed, the goal is that CBC will always be at 100% employment, each serving for the greater good of the body, for the edification of the family of believers, both inside and outside the walls of CBC.

Faithful Engagement

As followers of Christ it is important to remember that we are followers of Christ. Read that sentence again. Our responsibility is to follow Him. We don’t enable, teach, consult, or oversee Jesus…we follow. We remain faithful in following, and we leave the results to God (Matthew 25:21, 23; 1 Corinthians 3:5-9).

This means counting attendees, baptisms, salvations, or even money as a form of success is not the goal. Trying to evaluate those as some aspect of success is simply misdirected. At CBC, we aim to be faithful to love God, love others, and then till, water, prune, and reap as He leads us. We long to grow in love for one another, commitment to prayer, study of the Word, and encouraging one another to live out Christ-centered lives. Success is therefore measured in the faithfulness to follow Christ’s leading, imaging Jesus, and producing fruit of the Spirit. Furthermore, success is enabled to the extent that we are committed to encouraging and acknowledging the same in others. Our job is to be faithful with what God gives us to steward, and the results are simply His.

Our work (spiritual, ministry, or vocational) is inherently consecrated to Jesus because it is under His authority and guidance that we work at all (2 Corinthians 4:7). Each of us, having been called into a portion of stewardship in the ministry of Jesus Christ, has a responsibility to do our very best, to work as unto the Lord. Therefore, our aim should be excellence in all we do, big and small, seen and unseen — in how we share the Gospel, prepare a Sunday school lesson, lead our children, drive our cars, talk to telemarketers, brew the coffee, vacuum the floor, or hand a guest a bulletin. We are stewards of the King and He is worthy of nothing less than our best (2 Corinthians 8:7-9).

Adventurous Compassion

The best news the world has ever heard is that the God of all creation came to us, gave Himself for us, and has offered eternal life freely to everyone through simple faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9). We’ve done nothing to earn it, and certainly nothing to deserve it — it’s free, to us all. That’s a story worth telling, and there are many who need to hear it! We know God loves them, and they, like us, are hopelessly lost apart from the loving grace of God. Someone has to tell them (1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Colossians 4:2-6; Ephesians 6:18-20).

Our calling as imperfect people, under the headship of King Jesus, is to make sure everyone in the Lake Conroe area has heard and had an opportunity to respond to the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This calling is a wonderful adventure! As beautiful and wonderful as an authentic community inside the walls can and should be, we are commanded to go out. Going out may involve risk. The risk of rejection, of being convinced it’s not worth the work, of falling into being too comfortable to care, of being nervous and uncomfortable, and of not being in control. Even still, evangelism requires we go out.

At CBC, we want to encourage and commit to a legacy of adventurous compassion to see the best news in the history of humanity change people’s lives. We will walk in faith: faith that God’s love can bring low all pride and soften hearts of stone; faith that God’s design for community is legitimately possible through people who reflect the grace and love that has been demonstrated in Jesus; faith that God knows how completely foolish we each are, and yet still calls each of us to join (100% employment); faith that God is perfectly capable making the fields ripe for harvest, and our role is simply that of a faithful servant joining the harvest.

Evangelism requires adventurous compassion. That requires walking by faith. Faith pleases God.