Know

FBC Fairburn is a diverse community of believers seeking to glorify God, make disciples, build families, and reach our communities in ways that stretch beyond age, ethnicity, and status.

There it is…right in the beginning of our mission. We are a community of believers seeking glorify God. This is the point of departure for our life in Christ. Ultimately, it is about worship.

I love the word that the Hebrews used for their engagement with God. It is a simple word that carries a wide array of meaning. It is the word “know”. In many instances it is used to symbolize the union of a man and woman in marriage. Other times it is used between friends or close business associates. It is a phrase of intimacy. For example, you may know that Matt Ryan is the QB for the Atlanta Falcons and you may even be able to recognize him by face on TV, but you have never met him, so you don’t know him. You might know how many completions he made in 2016, his college coach’s name, and all of the statistics from his career, but you don’t know him. You know about him, but you don’t know him.

As a community of believers, we are not merely satisfied that people know about God. We want you and the people with whom you engage on the streets to actually know God. It is hard to do this in the Bible belt. There are so many people that have a Sports Illustrated relationship with God. They know about God, but do not actually know Him. This becomes an issue when that appears to be satisfactory…even more so in the church!

So, what does that mean for us as a community of believers? We are driving towards assisting our people know and experience God. This is not about the songs we sing, the atmosphere of the sanctuary, or even the content of the sermon. This is about the spiritual aspect of worship! Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that God was seeking worshipers to worship in spirit and truth. The music, the sanctuary, and the sermon play into this, but they are not fullness.

We serve a God who was not content to leave us in our state. We could not get to Him, so He sent His Son to us, that we could follow Him to the Father. That is a pretty amazing God! Worship is our response to that. We like to think of it as the 11 am gathering on Sunday morning. When we do that, we look at God as though he is the cover of Sports Illustrated. We don’t buy the magazine, we just look at the article while we are in the check out line. We get just enough knowledge about God to pacify and we go on our way.

What FBC Fairburn is poised to do is translate that 11 am service to a lifestyle of engagement with the Holy One. To know God is to enter into an all consuming relationship with Him. Therefore, we strive to build disciples who glorify God on Tuesday and Wednesday at home, so that the Sunday morning experience is an overflow of what God was already doing during the week. It is the spiritual work of actually having an intimate and growing relationship with God. This is the difference between knowing about God and actually knowing Him!

Let me encourage you to find new ways even today to begin knowing God better. If you don’t have a Bible reading plan, there are many easy options to begin your journey to know God better. Maybe you have a patterned routine and just a slight shift to break the routine will help you know more about Who God is. I am always here to help and to provide resources. You will not be disappointed in the dynamic difference that striving to Know God will make in your life, your family, and your church.

Join me as we seek to know God and glorify Him!