Church Is Community

I am looking at the clock right now because I know that I have to take my son, Landon, to a Boy Scout pack meeting in just a few hours. I also just thought, I have no time to finish everything I have to do. I have to be honest, after an action packed weekend, actually an action packed few months, I kind of want to just curl up and eat/sleep/play Xbox for a good week. Life is just busy! We have families to tend, houses to care for and bills to pay, not to mention the hours of work to provide the appropriate funds for that list of to-do's. This just makes time away, secluded and relaxing, that much more important...if we get it at all. Many work as many as six days, some even every day, of the week. Students work hard on their academic, extra-curricular and social lives for most if not all of their waking hours. It seems to make sense for many Christians why we need to take time in the busy-ness of life to pray and do our Bible study. We need to draw from God! We need to recharge and refresh spiritually! It just makes sense! What doesn't always make sense to us is meeting together...with other Christians. Sometimes, we have a problem understanding the importance of community.

One of the biggest reasons that community is important can be seen in one of the first things God has said about people in the history of all mankind. It comes from a passage in the creation account, Genesis 2:18a, which says, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone.'" We are not designed to be alone. I know that when life gets busy, we tend to draw away from crowds just to focus on and almost protect what is considered the most important to us. This sounds awesome! This sounds like such a good idea! The problem is that we aren't designed to do this. When caught out in extremely cold circumstances, your blood will start to leave your fingers, toes, ears and nose to protect your organs. This sounds great until your fingers, toes, ears and nose succumb to advanced frost bite. It's the same as hypothermia when in freezing water. The body is not designed to function with this extreme, inward focus. The same goes for the Body of Christ, the Church.

God designed the Church to be united and together, not just a few individuals spread over the globe. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." As the writings of Paul constantly affirm, the Church is designed to function as the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-31, and a whole bunch of other places in Paul's letters), a unified structure of people who are joined together by the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3). In short, just as people, in general, are created to be involved in each other's lives, God's new creation, followers of Jesus Christ are no different. We as Christians are even more than instructed, we are created to be involved in community with each other regularly.

Usually there are reasons why we don't involve ourselves in Church services. Some of us are too busy as stated before. It's absolutely easy to think that personal devotion and having Christian friends is enough. Body life is a good idea, but one that some of us just don't have time for. Another thing that deters people from Church community is having been hurt by a congregation of Christians, or even just a certain member of a congregation, or, let's be honest, sometimes just disagreeing with a sermon. Whatever the case may be, let me take a moment to iterate a common theme to my articles. The Bible seems to be quite clear from Genesis to Revelation that righteousness is selflessness, and selflessness means saying, "It's no longer about me. I need to get over myself." I immediately think of Philippians 2:3-4 which says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."

When we are consumed by the needs of our brothers and sisters, God uses our brothers and sisters to take care of our needs. I ask in youth group, "If everyone in this room looks after everyone in this room but themselves, how many people are looking after you? If you ignore everyone and only look after yourself, how many people are looking after you? Which number makes more sense?" This doesn't mean that we look after other people because they look after us. We are called to love regardless of whether we are loved back. We look after each other because we believe that Jesus meant it when He said, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and (money, food and clothing) will be given to you as well." When the church functioned as a group, there were no needy among them (Acts 4:34). Church community, body life, is not about getting. That would be absolute selfishness. It's about giving, not being alone, considering others above ourselves and loving the men and women that God loves and calls His children. See you at Church this Sunday!

In His Grip,

BJ

Evangelism: Beyond the Word

There are many quirky things about my home state of Alaska.  We joked that the state bird  was the mosquito.  (Big as eagles I tell ya!!!)  We called snowmobiles "snow machines."  We referred to the main American cluster of states as "the Lower 48."  We also knew how the little town of Chicken, Alaska got its name.  Chicken was an original Gold Rush town from the 1800s...now rotates its population from around 7 to around 17.  There was an overabundance of Ptarmigan, a native Alaskan bird, in the area.  So, when it was time for the town to be named, it seemed like the obvious choice save for one big problem: no one knew how to spell it!  In order to save embarrassment, they decided to hit as close as they could, Chicken, Alaska.

This isn't just an Alaskan thing, however.  I remember reading Arkansas spelled with a "w" in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.  Making French words into English words evidently isn't easy.  There is a mountain in Arkansas called Petite Jean.  Now, here in St. Louis, where we are used to seeing such words as Gravois and Des Peres, we might endeavor to call the mountain by its French name.  The Arkansans I lived among, however, called it "Petijean."  The Ozarks are, in fact, a mutated, transliterated form of the French "Aux Arc."  There are many similar transliterations we use today that are from the Roman culture, many of which were originally from the Greek culture. The Greeks had Heracles but the Romans had Hercules.  We see this kind of thing especially in the Biblical language with such words as pastor, baptism and evangelism.

Evangelism is a scary word.  What do you think of when you hear the word?  Some think of screaming preachers on TV.  Some think of scripted confrontations on street corners with or without picket signs and megaphones.  Some think of uncomfortable conversations with friends or family trying to convey a message of hope wrapped in a veneer of condemnation.  Hopefully many see evangelism for what it really is, simply proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Christ.

Unfortunately, evangelism can easily be misunderstood due to it being an English transliteration of a Latin transliteration of a Greek word...wait, what???  Instead of interpreting the meaning of the word, "euangelion" in the Greek was simply just called "evangelium" in Latin which became "evangelism" in English.  Why is this unfortunate?  In order to understand it for what it means, we need to briefly look at the history of the word.  When a king or some kind of mighty leader would enter a city, he would send word ahead to cheer the people up.  They should be excited for they will be hosting royalty!  This messenger was called the "euangelos" which simply meant "good messenger" or more accurately to intention "messenger of the good news."  Remember when the angel (Angel = Angelos=Messenger) Gabriel told the shepherds that he brought good tidings of great joy?  That was the "euangelion," the good news, the gospel.  So what did we learn here?  Evangelism, in the context of the Bible, is the telling of the good news of God.  Phew!  Easier!

Now that the difficulty of the word is taken away, how do we do it?  As I have spoken with Glenn (our Sr. Minister), read through scripture and commentaries, it has become quite clear to me that evangelism isn't a functional step-process.  There are recognizable phases for sure!  But sometimes you might just be able to share what God is doing in your life, your personal testimony, but they aren't ready for the full-on Bible study just yet.  Paul's evangelism seemed to be individually tailored to his audience.  To the Jews, he was quoting the Hebrew Bible constantly, but to the Athenians he spoke to their philosophical and religious mentalities.  What do we learn from this?  Evangelism is telling the good news of God's redemption.  That's it!  What makes you particularly suited for this task as a Christian?  You are the end result of the Gospel's redemptive power!

 

In Romans 1:16, Paul says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings  salvation to everyone who believes!"  The word Paul uses here for "power" is the same word from which we get dynamite.  Not only should we not be ashamed of what set us free from death and Hell, but we need to recognize    in that cognizant part of our mind that the gospel empowers us with God's gift of the Holy Spirit.  He is God's very active and personal presence in our lives who Paul later tells Timothy (2 Timothy 1:7) isn't a spirit of timidity but of power.  The excitement and desire to share should well up inside us that the very idea of not sharing what God has done causes us to say as Peter and John said under     orders to not evangelize, "Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be  the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19-20)
                                                                                                                                       In His Grip,
                                                                                                                                                       BJ