S.E.A.R.C.H.

Safety

“We need each other, never more than when we are most broken. But brokenness is not a disease, like cancer, that may or may not develop. Brokenness is a condition, one that is always there, inside beneath the surface, carefully hidden for as long as we can keep a facade in place. We live in brokenness. We just don’t always see it, either in ourselves or in others.

“A central task of community is to create a place that is safe enough for the walls to be torn down, safe enough for each of us to own and reveal our brokenness. Only then can the power of connecting do its job. Only then can community be used of God to restore our souls.” – Dr. Larry Crabb

Excellence

“The thirteen breakout churches are involved in diverse ministries and programs. We did not see a clear pattern of types of ministries that may be replicated in other churches. What we did see was a culture that insisted on excellence. While it is important to discern what we are supposed to do, it is equally important to do those things well. One of the more difficult decisions for the comparison churches was not that of choosing what to do. Rather, the difficulty was choosing what NOT TO DO and then making the very difficult move of ELIMINATING that which could not be done with excellence.” – Thom S. Rainer, Breakout Churches

Accountability

“My friend will CELEBRATE Christ in me, he will not judge me, and I will feel safe. He will ENVISION the reality of my new identity as it is and will become. He will DISCERN the Spirit and flesh competing for control; and he will POUR OUT what is most supernaturally natural in him. What he says will matter. The energy carrying his words will matter more. It will be the energy of Christ. Right now, this man is for me the safest place on earth. Community with him has become a means of grace, an opportunity to experience the source of true safety” – Dr. Larry Crabb

Real

“As I already admitted, my dominant sin has been MY COWARDLY REFUSAL to think, feel, act, respond, and live from my authentic self because I FEAR REJECTION. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in Jesus. Just that I’ve let peer pressure set the boundaries of my faith. And it doesn’t mean I don’t love Jesus. Just that there are moments when I love other things – especially my own glittering image – even more. Which means, because I’ve set these limits on my faith and love for Jesus, it’s just a matter of time until my next betrayal. I’m really no different from the first followers of Jesus. When the religious police showed up, “all the disciples cut and ran.” – Brennan Manning, Posers, Fakers & Wannabes (Unmasking the real you)

Community

“My burden is to see spiritual communities develop, where spiritual friends and spiritual directors CONNECT with people. I long to see communities where people feel SAFE enough to be broken. Where a VISION of what the Spirit wants to do in people’s lives sustains them, even when they are far from it. Where WISDOM from God sees what the Spirit is right now doing and what is getting in His way. Where the literal life of Christ pours out of one to energize that life in another, offering His divine TOUCH.” – Dr. Larry Crabb

Health

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31

When we LOVE how we were created to it creates HEALTH…. SPIRIT, SOUL, & BODY.

Loving in our createdness creates Health & Balance; Spiritual Health, Soulish Health; mind, emotion, will and Physical Health