Dear family,
Welcome back to my second letter to The Church. I know we left on a bit of a cliff hanger in the last one, let me get right to it.
I want to Be The Church.
That’s an odd phrase, isn’t it? How does one be The Church and not go to church?
I defined going to church in the last letter as…
“Dressing up, going to a place to worship, listening to someone preaching, and leaving.”
Here is a definition of Being The Church, taking what I’ve read and understood from the New Testament.
“Love your neighbors as yourself, love and serve the least of these, come together and worship God with your whole heart, open God’s word together, preach the Gospel to each other, pray together all the time, be in constant community with each other, go out and make disciples together and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, do this every day.”
Two very different perspectives. Me personally one sounds a whole lot easier if I can go to church once a week and call it good, and go live my life any way I want throughout the week, as long as I make it back to church on Sunday I’ll be alright.
No. This is not true at all.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, it says “Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.”
Once you understand and accept the gift of salvation you cannot, should not want a Sunday morning church mentality. It’s not biblical, it needs to shift a bit.
If we were to truly lay our life down for God to use us any way He chose I can guarantee he wouldn’t say “I’ll see you at church this Sunday, I’ll see you there, oh, and don’t forget about the potluck after the sermon. You better be there, its the one day a week I get to spend time with you.”
Jesus was our example, He said the words that ring true still to this day.
“Not my will, but Yours be done.”
In Philippians 2:17 Paul describes his life as being poured out as a drink.
Can you imagine? If you were to pour out a cup of milk on the dinner table you have absolutely no say in where the milk will spread over the table, it might fall through the cracks, or drip onto your friend’s lap.
If you allowed God to use you as if you were poured out for Him you would have no say in what comes next. You would just go where you go.
Now, what does this have to do with Being The Church? Absolutely everything.
As The Body of Christ, we have a responsibility to each other to love, serve, and preach the Gospel to each other and to those around us, daily. This ain’t a once a week kind of deal.
How should we do this then? What’s the answer? Is there just one right answer?
Are you getting as excited as I am?
-Mitchell
