Today is Reformation Sunday. Today, we acknowledge that our faith is a bold experiment, something we’ve been tinkering with, improving, growing for more than 500 years. You might say it is our path toward thriving.
Pocket Change
Jesus calls us to love God and love neighbor. I believe that means we are called to render empathy, compassion, respect, dignity, hospitality to those whom we encounter, and to recognize our interdependence and rootedness in God and one another. That’s the honor we’re asked to render. That’s the honor we can never forsake.
Here’s the question that should shape our week ahead: Do our actions reflect the honor we are asked to render?
A Different Invitation
I will tell you that I don’t believe Matthew’s form of invitation is as effective as others. I don’t believe God is here to scare us into salvation, nor to offer the singular choice of turning or burning. I believe God is here to help love us into our full potential. And yes, there may be a day when each of us stand in judgement, when our commitment to covenant is reviewed, but that moment won’t be flippant, nor rigid, nor without infinite chances for grace and mercy. God’s patience is never urgent or fleeting, never reduced to our smallness, or even to our wildest imagination. God isn’t ever worried about losing face. God is infinitely concerned with welcoming us home.
Laboring for a Table
Every empire, ancient or modern, keeps preaching the same old gospel of scarcity. And tenants and owners keep fighting to see who can hoard the most. Jesus preaches the gospel of God’s abundance. And he offers us a corrective. The fruit the tenants refused to share becomes the fruit Christ insists we place on the table. We are invited to a table where bread, and fruit, and life are shared rather than hoarded.
Helping Churches Thrive
Starting in October 2026, Millbrook Baptist Church is embarking on a year-long journey alongside a cohort of congregations across North Carolina in Helping Churches Thrive, a ministry initiative of The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina. Together, we will explore seven defining characteristics of a thriving congregation, one each month, through worship, congregational conversations, small group engagement, and more. This isn’t a program handed down from the outside; it’s an invitation from within our own community to ask a meaningful question together: What does it look like for Millbrook to truly thrive? We believe every voice matters, and we hope you’ll bring yours to the conversation.
Not Fair. Thank Goodness!
I believe, I faith, I know that each of us are given value and made whole in the presence of our Maker. Nothing can change that. Whether we labor twelve hours or one. Whether we arrive early or late. Whether we stand idle or employed. God’s is not a generosity given on our terms, but it’s absolutely a generosity I want to claim.
God’s economy is the one I want to live in. Even if Larry in Purchasing leaves early. Even if his TV is bigger. Even if his iPhone is newer and cooler. Even if he paid ten dollars less at the Holiday Inn. See, I’m counting on a grace whose sufficiency needn’t be measured, or proven, or balanced to make us whole.