I have
enjoyed preaching through our root values this summer. One of the most
interesting parts of our congregational DNA is our colorfulness. This is the
root that may need the most explanation. We are a church of strong
personalities. FBC Waco has a large number of passionate leaders. When I drew
the tree illustration for one of my mentors (and FBC Waco member) he laughed as
I explained the colorful root and said, “Yes, that’s true.” This root is a
blessing that requires a certain spiritual and emotional depth. Untended, our
colorfulness is a liability. Strong leadership must be wed to civility, wisdom,
and forgiveness.
Martin Marty once observed, “One of
the real problems in modern life is that the people who are good at being civil
often lack strong convictions and the people who have strong convictions often
lack civility.” We need to be passionate and civil. Kindness and gentleness are
fruit of the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit of Jesus we will be civil. Church
conflicts often occur because Christians think bluntness should have been
listed as spiritual fruit. It was not.
Civil behavior is born of wisdom. We
can measure this by judging the words we use. R.T. Kendall once encouraged his
congregants at Westminster Chapel to use an acrostic to help them decide when
and how to speak to each other. The acrostic was NEED. N – Is it necessary? E- Does it emancipate? E- Does it energize? D –
Does it dignify? These questions help strong people remain strong and stay
out of trouble.
When we bump into one another in our
attempts to do the Lord’s work we need to be quick to apologize and quick to
forgive. Forgiveness is God’s gift and plan for a broken world. Jesus modeled
it and has called us to follow in his steps.
I am grateful for the strong
personalities in FBC Waco. We are not a boring group of folks. We have members
that know how to be great in a legion of areas. This means we have a special
obligation to be good.
