"It is important people perceive our church to be..."

Yesterday I filled out an online questionnaire for our web designer in preparation for tomorrow's design meeting. One of the things they asked was for me to complete the sentence, "It is important people perceive our church to be" The first word that came to my mind was genuine. I want people to have no doubt that we are genuine in our faith, our passion and our commitment to live for Jesus every day and in every way.

Now I'm not a web designer, but my guess is that it's hard for a website to communicate "genuine." That's almost like asking an ATM to communicate a bank is friendly. Church's can have the best website in the world and that website can do an incredible job of connecting people to your church and encouraging them to check it out, but if they show up and realize it was just a fancy design, it loses all meaning.

In other words, genuine is not a perception you can fake. People will know we are genuine as we take our faith and our relationship with Jesus and let it truly transform the way we live and care for our family at home, the integrity we exhibit at work, the patience we show in line at the grocery store, the calm and reassurance we provide in crisis...you get the idea.

In my Bible study right now we're talking about friendships and one of the things we've talked about is the difference between a fake friendship and the real deal. We all know the difference and we can all tell immediately the people who are interested in the real thing. As a church (you and me), people can tell when we're genuinely interested in them just like they can tell when we're genuine about our relationship with Jesus.

Let's get real in our walk with God and let's get real in our current relationships so we have the kind of support and accountability that will keep us genuine as a community of faith.