missio

I’ve been really stuck on dissatisfaction lately as an instrumental role in spiritual growth. In fact, faith and hope are impossible without dissatisfaction. If you are completely satisfied with the way things are, then there is nothing to hope for. That is, hoping for something requires that you are not satisfied with the way things currently are. Because faith is the assurance of things hoped for (Hebrews 11), faith also requires dissatisfaction with the way things currently are.

Last night at Echo Group - Winterville, we experienced this first-hand. We were all disgusted with the way things are, including our own actions. We are groaning for the Kingdom to come. We are yearning for the King to show up fully. But while these things are already taking place, they have not yet come fully. It is this tension we live in, and it is in this tension we are frustrated and, ultimately, dissatisfied.

Dissatisfaction also drives us as a church. We are not content with the 30,000 people in Downtown Greenville not knowing Christ. We are not happy with our culture, which glorifies drunkenness, perversion, capitalism, and a brazen lack of care for the impoverished in our midst. We are not satisfied with Jesus not being famous in our area. We are not satisfied with how the local Church acts, both in relation to non-Christians, and in relation to Christians. We are not satisfied.

But we still have hope. We will keep the faith. Until one day….the tension is resolved.

And the King returns.