Is this Business or Personal?

Over the past half a decade I have come in contact with many church leaders and aspiring church leaders across denominational lines.
Through this exposure I have discovered there are two types of holiness in the church today. There is what I call Business Holiness and what I call Personal Holiness.

Business Holiness
This is the life we live in front of the crowd. These are the people to whom holiness is a profession rather than a lifestyle. Going through Bible college, and being in full time ministry, one naturally meets the those who are in the business of holiness, student and leader alike, the ones who say the right things and do the right things for the public eye. Yet in one on one relationships the holiness lacks.

The speech that pours out of their mouth is profane and full of gossip. Their actions corrupt. Others' importance to them is directly proportional to one's ability to advance their "career". They are the shining stars for all to see. They preach holiness, yet they do not truly know holiness. They are our modern day pharisees; pointing the pious finger outward.

Personal Holiness
In contrast to Business Holiness, along my journey I have met those who live holiness. These are the ones who have modeled a Christ-like lifestyle to me. They have taken the time for those the stars have cast aside. They see us and know we can not advance their "career", but see their ministry.

Their speech is full of encouragement and points us to the cross. They are transparent enough to allow us to see their passion and their pains. We are not held at arms length but embraced in love, as brothers or sisters. In these times, their struggles are revealed yet are shadowed by their thirst for Christ-likeness.

After having one of those intimate moments with those living Personal Holiness, I always find myself driven to be more like Christ and asking myself, "Am I in the Business of Holiness or am I living Personal Holiness?". Kindof a sobering thought for those of us in full-time ministry.

Is our holiness business or is it personal?

*Please understand is this blog is meant to spur us on to true
personal holiness and is not an attack on any specific individual.*

Assembly Required

"And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. "
-Acts 2:44, NLT

This past weekend 12 churches from a multitude of denominations got together for Love Saint John. This began in Abbotsford, B.C. a few years back and has exploded across the country. Essentially churches put down their denominational arms and go forth as the body of Christ to show God's love in tactile ways. For example in our area, the Church cleaned up trash and then handed out bottles of water... after we washed our hands! In other areas of the city we handed out hot dogs and offered prayer. My personal favorite was a "cashless yard sale" (genius!!).

While the focus of the ministry is to reach out, over this weekend I could sense and visibly see ways the body of Christ was being knit together; as Baptist, Wesleyan, charismatic, Roman Catholic titles disappeared and brothers and sisters stood united for our Father's Kingdom!

This past weekend we were the Acts 2 church!