When
I went to Haiti last January one of the lessons God taught me was that I can’t
do it alone. I just saw things I wanted to fix in the Haitians’ lives and I
couldn’t. But I also saw the love and passion growing inside my group members
for the Haitians and I was encouraged. With our different talents and resources
we could make a difference.
This
last Sunday God reminded me AGAIN of this lesson. I went to Graceway in Kansas
City. They are doing a series called Why Church? They are answering this
question by studying through the book of Acts. This past week in Acts 9 the
answer to the question Why Church? was Because together we can impact the
world.
Paul
could not have done what he did without the church. (I need to stop and point
out that the church here is not one specific church but is referring to all
believers) After Saul has an encounter with God and his name changed to Paul he
spent the rest of his life telling people about Jesus. He didn’t do this by
himself. Some men and women went with him while others stayed behind to invest more
where they were at. When Paul was writing to the Philippians he thanked them
for providing for him without him asking, because they were praying for him
they knew he was in need.
I completely agree with this! I find it interesting though that we value community so much within our own community, but not with the other communities around us. I've never seen a Baptist church teaming up with a United Methodist church for an outreach project. I would go out on a limb and say that most pastors/priests in Wburg probably don't even know each other or think of collaborating on something. God does speak of "one church, his bride". I think that as a whole, our Protestant community in the US doesn't do a good job of being "one church", it's more like lots of different churches that think they have the right doctrine and stand as an island. Surely God had something else in mind when using the singular "one Church", He didn't say "my churches, my bride".
ReplyDeleteI love this post! Often we forget the meaning of church. This is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. I like the thought of teaming up and changing the world together. This was great food for thought... thanks for sharing!
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