Catch the Fire Culture
Culture Shock • Sermon • Submitted
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Our Core Values
Our Core Values
Intimacy with Jesus
Knowing God as Father
Healing of the Heart
Anointing of the Holy Spirit
Multiplication of Leaders in every sphere of life
Our mission: To walk in God’s love and give it away to Greensboro and the world
Catch the Fire Greensboro is uniquely called to be part of the church in Greensboro, and each person here is uniquely called as well.
, in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
Abrahamic multiplication
Abraham - called by God to move (Carolyn and I have done that, and by joining us so have each of you)
Isaac - married well and redug his Father’s wells. (identifying the folks who God presents to us and digging in to their lives)
Jacob - established relationships and began the process of multiplication (giving the opportunities to open up your lives and become multipliers for the next generation)
Joseph - rooted and grounded in a place (still another 470 years until Israel entered the promised land, led by Joshua)
In the Issac season, it becomes all about leaving what you knew, and getting married to a completely different vision, a completely different mode of life. Rebekah leaves her father’s house and is joined to Isaac. I imaging she had plenty of moments that she could have said “that’s not how we used to do it in my previous family.”
Similarly, coming along to Catch the Fire Greensboro, for Carolyn and I, as well as for everyone else, for each of you, there will be plenty of opportunity to say “well that’s not what I am used to”.
Greensboro needs you to let what is inside of you out. As the Kingdom grows in us, both as individuals and as a community, it will root out all the other stuff.
As the Holy Spirit fills us, He truly becomes the ultimate prize of our lives. And the more we let down our walls and open our hearts to Him, the more He fills us, and the more he becomes our Prize.
By the time God fully answers His word “I will give you the desires of your hearts” we have been led to a place that He is the ultimate desire of our hearts.
Greensboro needs you to let what is inside of you out. As the Kingdom grows in us, both as individuals and as a community, it will root out all the other stuff.
As the Holy Spirit fills us, He truly becomes the ultimate prize of our lives. And the more we let down our walls and open our hearts to Him, the more He fills us, and the more he becomes our Prize.
By the time God fully answers His word “I will give you the desires of your hearts” we have been led to a place that He is the ultimate desire of our hearts.
Culture Shock: at Catch the Fire everyone gets to play
I have been involved in ministry with many people from many backgrounds
Catch the Fire has been challenging to most folks who are not Catch the Fire.
There are so few rules. There is not a discernable ladder to climb. We are informal in our style. All of this is on purpose. Catch the Fire believes that Holy Spirit wants to move in 100% of our meetings, and that we need an ethos and structure that allows for that. We need to come prepared for two lines of movement. Us reaching for Him, and Him crashing in on us. And when He crashes in, He messes us up, in the best way
Baptism story - Veronica
Praying in tongues story - Rani Sabastian
Just say Jesus is Lord for me one time - Mary
In a world where we see the outside and judge by the appearances, Catch the Fire is a community of believers that have the opportunity to be known by their heart.
The problems we face primarily stem from what Steve calls “being non-religious”.
New faces bring with them expectations of what church will be like, and how God ought to be worshiped.
The stripping away of the phariseic religious expectations that we place on the church and on each other is one of the most important and most healing things that I believe Catch the Fire has to offer to the city of Greensboro.
We are NOT GOOD at being open and honest about who we really are, and THAT is exactly who the world needs. Jesus’ disdain for all the Pharisee’s posturings and legalism drove them crazy. And the fact that this guy didn’t honor them for their position, and all their good works, meanwhile he spent time with the sinners, and then had the audacity to heal and work miracles. OH MAN that made them nuts!
Brennan Manning wrote “It wasn’t the murderers, rapists and prostitutes who crucified Jesus. It was the religious ‘good people’ with washed hands and dirty hearts.”
When the imperfect people who don’t have it all together start healing the sick, raising the dead, winning the lost, and multiplying revival into the hearts of others, that’s going to be fun!
Woe to the person who brings their perfection into Catch the Fire Greensboro. The Holy Spirit is going to mess with your perfectness, and He’s going to partner with broken messy people to do it.
In the life of this church, I have only implemented and encouraged one behavior as a guiding principal: Let’s meet together and grow together in the living-room.
That’s our program. That’s our church methodology for healing of the heart, meeting together long enough that the heart actually can be known.
That’s our church methodology for outreach to the lost, open more livingrooms and invite the lost into those livingrooms.
Community and Growth is so essential to developing the Culture of Catch the Fire Greensboro because it is as we integrate into each others’ lives that we bring all of our strengths and weaknesses together, and get a fighting chance of making a difference.
In the short two years of meetings together folks have asked about other ministries, and I am of course open to folks trying things out. But I want to be very clear, that when Anne came to see me about opening up here extensive experience and background in healing ministry, I informed her that in order for it to be a Catch the Fire expression of ministry, it would have to have a multiplication of leaders aspect to it.
Intimacy with Jesus is achieved by entering into rest, and being honest about who we really are. It’s not intimacy if it’s built on false narratives or unnecessary religiosity. Knowing who we really are is not possible in isolation. We often withdraw into solitude thinking we will be alone, but then find we have brought every person and every care with us into that place. Every time our heart has been hurt, every time life beat us up. When we really need Jesus to have skin on (in the form of a father or mother in the Lord who will accept us, and listen and empathize) is the time we run away, afraid to let anyone know that we are really struggling. We need community if we are going to have intimacy with Jesus.
To know Jesus is to be vulnerable. And that is perhaps the biggest culture shock of all.
When Steve and Julie ask about
Greensboro needs you to let what is inside of you out. As the Kingdom grows in us, both as individuals and as a community, it will root out all the other stuff.
As the Holy Spirit fills us, He truly becomes the ultimate prize of our lives. And the more we let down our walls and open our hearts to Him, the more He fills us, and the more he becomes our Prize.
Knowing God as our Father depends entirely on seeing Jesus for who He really is, and seeing ourselves for who we really are. “For now we see as in a glass dimly, but then we shall see face to face.” God has
By the time God fully answers His word “I will give you the desires of your hearts” we have been led to a place that He is the ultimate desire of our hearts.