(Yes, I got tired of the black so I changed the color again 🙂 )
Stop going to church!
Did that grab your attention? It certainly grabbed mine when I read it in a book recently. The very next sentence – start BEING the Church.
Now, the author was not at all saying don’t go meet on a Sunday morning in a building with other believers. He made that very clear. What the author was saying is it’s time to realize who we are and what our purpose is on this earth. Bringing God’s kingdom to earth through our actions, our thoughts, and our words. Obey your Father in heaven, bring Him glory, and be the Church.
Let me say it again – Meet together on a Sunday morning. The Bible is very clear not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We are called to encourage, equip, train, rebuke, and edify one another. So let’s meet together and admit our failures, our faults, our fears, our strengths and our weaknesses. Let’s pray for each other, press on together, link arms and fight this battle together.
Let’s BE the Church.
Maybe part of our struggle comes from the way we talk and think about ‘church.’ “I am going to church” we say but maybe a more accurate statement would be “I’m going to meet with the Church.” Change your words, it can change the way you think.
And when we talk about why we go to a specific church maybe the focus shouldn’t be on what I get out of it but what I am able to put into it. Being the Church is not about you getting but about what you are giving. Being a part of the body of Christ means you have a purpose, a gift, a function. Find out ways to be involved, ways you can give to the body of Christ. How can you edify the people sitting next to you? What part can you play in building up the body of Christ to the glory of God the Father? Don’t just think about what you can get, wrestle with what you can give. We need everyone active and participating to make the Church what God desires for it to be.
Believer, may you realize your true calling as the Church. May you see it as more than just sitting in a building on a Sunday morning but instead, as a gathering together of the body of Christ to bring the kingdom of God. It’s about community, it’s about serving, it’s about sacrificing. It’s not about you. Stop going to church; start being the Church when you meet together.