That was just wrong!!! What a crock!

That was my sentiment walking out of the movie theater after watching Scarlett Johansson’s new movie “Lucy.”

All the trailers and commercials for the movie made it seem like it would be an action flick where Scarlett Johansson’s character kicks butt over bad guys. So when my wife and I went to the theater, that’s what we expected to see. That’s what we paid to see.

What we got, instead, is some new-age, badly spiritualized theory of evolution, sic-fi, psycho-babble.

They tricked us!

I wasn’t the only one. I heard others muttering similar sentiments as they were walking out of the theater.

False advertising. What a waste of my time…

As I have been thinking about this movie, I’ve been wondering about church.

The church is good at talking about how God changes everything…How much and what has the church really changed? How much impact has the church made in our world?

I can’t help but wonder if the church promises one thing and then when people show up they experience something totally different.

That’s just wrong! They tricked me! What a crock!

God, I don’t want to merely go through the motions of church. I want to experience the eternity changing, culture shaping, life altering, community impacting ministry of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. I don’t want to just read about all the great things you did in the past in some ancient book. I want to see the power of God lived out and lived through the church today!

God, I stand with the prophet Habakkuk who cried out, “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known” (Habakkuk 3:2).