It is difficult in our performance- and accomplishment-driven society to understand that God wants us to “be” before we “do.” We can use our activity in the church, our mission work outside the church, and the small group studies we are involved in to actually keep us from deeply knowing God and even knowing ourselves as God wants us to be. In the words of one writer, “we are using God to run from God.” This Sunday I will share a “growth edge” that I am experiencing — re-learning, from the story of Mary and Martha — that being with God takes precedence over doing for God. Or, to say it a different way, God wants us “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29(a).

sermon: We are Formed Before We Are Sent (Luke 10:38-42 and Romans 8:29a) with Rev. David Donaldson