Love God - The First Gateway Heights Distinctive.

Surprise, surprise a pastor blogging about loving God, but at Gateway Heights we actually believe that loving God is a pretty radical and surprising concept.

When asked what the most important commandment in the entire Bible was, Jesus answered this way -

"And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the great and first commandment."  (Matthew 22:37-38)

It is interesting that Jesus would not simply just say, "Love God" but instead chose to connect love with three things: heart, soul, and mind. According to  Jesus, loving God included feeling (heart), being (soul) and thinking (mind). Jesus has an organic and holistic view of what it means to love God.

As a church planter, this is interesting and challenging to me because the church I start must somehow reflect this truth.  Gateway Heights must be a place where people are taught how to and encouraged to love God with their heart, soul, and mind. 

When I think of each of these things I tend to think of different people -

Loving God with all your heart reminds me of many artists I know who are so good at translating their emotions into beautiful images, lyrics, photographs, and music. It is easy to think of artists loving God on an emotional level.  They are expressive.

Loving God with all your soul reminds me of those I know who dedicate themselves to cultivating spiritual discipline. They are good at committing their will and schedule in tangible signs of devotion to God.  They are spiritualists.

Loving God with all your mind reminds me of those I know who are avid readers and thinkers and always seem to be catalysts for stimulating conversation.  They see the world with a complexity that few have but seems to come so easily to them.  It is easy to think of these "thinkers" loving God on an intellectual level. They are philosophers.

But the truth is while many of us identify with one of those categories more easily there are pieces of us in each of them.  We are multi-dimensional people who have a little bit of the artist, the spiritualist, and the philosopher in us all.

And that is by design.  In the beginning of the Bible we are told that God made mankind in his own image not in a physical image of course (ever been to the beach? yikes!) but in that we are artists, spiritualists, and philosophers because God is each of those things. 

And it is in Jesus that we find the ability to be those things in a way that God designed and in a way that pleases him.  We find purpose and passion in creating (art), connecting (spirituality), and thinking (philosophy).

At Gateway Heights we intend to pursue this newfound ability that we have in Jesus to return to our task as image-bearers of God by creating worship experiences that appeal to the heart, the soul, and the mind and motivating those in attendance to carry that joyful responsibility out into their roles as artists, thinkers, and citizens in our community.

How do we do this as a church?  It is something we are talking about and trying to figure out.  Why don't you join the conversation and help us discover how a church can lead people to Love God in the way that Jesus described?

Make plans to attend our next vision session on May 21st, 6 - 7:30 pm, @ 1389 Lynn Park Drive, Cleveland Heights.