If we only celebrated big moments of change we’d celebrate next to nothing and we’d miss the millions of ways God is at work in our church. Scripture teaches us change is slow and our spiritual growth develops like a muscle: over time, not overnight (Phil. 2:12-13). This means that minuscule change is majorly significant. You went from reading Scripture once a week to three times a week? Praise God! Your outbursts of anger at your children have decreased from regular to irregular? Look at God answering that prayer! Because real transformation comes from Jesus, we celebrate any and all degrees of change He works in us.

1 Thess. 5:11; Heb. 3:13; 10:24-25

Redeemer has taught my family and I “one degree of change is still change and worth celebrating”. There were times in the past where there was fear visiting new churches due to the overwhelming pressure to perform as opposed to just allowing Jesus to work through you. Redeemer has been a place of comfort as well as a place for healing. The one degree of change lived out and displayed is a lot larger than it sounds. For example, seeing my wife smile and willingly want to serve at Redeemer after coming from a place of hurt, makes the one degree visually look like 180 degrees. One degree is a big deal.

— Paul, Member of Redeemer

Today we continue our mini-series highlighting one house rule at a time. This week, we want to focus on this: Everyone is a work in progress.

To believe that everyone is a work in progress is to embrace a particular posture toward, well, everyone—your friends, kids, pastors, spouse, parents, the list goes on. Everyone is a work in progress because, as Scripture makes super clear, everyone—including Christians—are sinful. Because of Christ, Christians are new creations, freed from the power of sin but still struggling with the presence of sin in us, until Christ returns. Until then, everyone is a work in progress and when we grasp this, our posture toward people begins to reflect a gospel culture.

When I believe everyone is a work in progress, I am removing the planks in my eye before removing the splinter in someone else’s. When I believe everyone is a work in progress, I recognize that it is just as hard for that person—my kid, my co-worker, my spouse—to repent of their sin as it is for me it. Patterns and habits are indeed difficult to change. This sort of honest self-understanding leads to compassion and patience with ourselves and others because everyone is a work in progress.

1 Cor 13:4; Gal. 6:2; Col. 3:13; 1 Thess. 5:14

The order of the house rules matter and this rule is at the top for a reason. If we don’t believe it’s O.K. to not be O.K., our church culture will be marked by spoken and unspoken pressure to improve and grow—and do it in a hurry. Here's the thing: we want that. We do want growth and improvement in every facet of life for God’s glory. But we want the desire for growth to be cultivated in us out of love for Jesus instead of pressure from others. The apostle Paul gives us a great example of this in Philippians 3 when he talks about pressing on toward Christ in his spiritual growth. He wanted to keep growing. He wasn’t yet what he wanted to be. He might even say “It’s OK to not be OK but I don’t want to stay that way.” That’s really different than us scolding one another with “It’s OK for you to not be OK but you better not stay that way.”