What You Believe Matters 8 – The Church
Church is one of those things in life that we all know about, and yet are unsure about what happens in some of them. In my life I’ve been a part of 18 different churches in Texas, California and Michigan. In a little over 50 years that is quite a few churches considering 24 years have been at our church in Leslie, Michigan. Some of those churches really made me shake my head and not really know if I even believed in church and what it stood for. Then others restored my faith in the church.
With that being said, the church has always played a big part of my life. When I was younger, I went to church and had tons of questions about everything that is going on and what were the leaders of the church thinking. Many times, I thought “If I’m ever in charge of one of these churches I would do things so much differently.” Little did I know I would eventually end up leading a church and trying to figure out just what church is and what do I truly believe. Well here goes a shot at it.
So, there is that word “catholic” in the line about the church. So catholic means universal or as some people say the church around the world. It is the church that we are all a part of but don’t attend. When I was in college, they taught us that there was no such thing as the universal church. Of course, I went to narrow-minded college that only believed that Baptist would be in heaven. Once I got out of college and began to meet people from other churches, I knew that did not make any sense at all. When Jesus talked about establishing His church, he was not talking about a specific group gathered but a movement that should change the world.
“Jesus told him: Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed! You didn’t discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven. So I will call you Peter, which means “a rock.” On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it.” Mark 16:17-18 (NCV)
With that statement Jesus let us know he was building something bigger, something earth changing and linked together by our love for God. Problem is that many churches think it is a competition between us and them. Once churches begin to realize that we are on the same team just in different positions we can not be stopped. When we link arms instead of fighting over who has who and which church is bigger, we will be amazed at what God could do in this world. I have watched our church here in Leslie with only a couple of hundred of us help churches in our own town and around the world. It is when we cooperate and not compete that God is glorified and His mission for us in the world comes to life. Man, those are the best days to be a part of a church.
With all this talk about the worldwide church the question becomes how do we become part of this movement that is changing the world in places? Well let’s look at three ways we can become involved in God’s church where we are.
Serve inside a local church and outside in the world.
The same way that churches can team together to make a bigger difference we can team together with our churches to make a difference in the community we live in. Paul wrote to a local church in Philippians 2:3 -4: “When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves. Do not be interested only I your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.” It is that simple. Just think about someone else and do all you can to help them and make a difference in their lives. When join a group of believers that put others first. That is what will change the world we live in. We can help those people we live elbow to elbow with each day.
We can participate by giving to your churches mission
I know churches have a stigma for always asked for money. Well that is true churches do ask for money. We will talk about that on another blog. To make things happen it does take money. We all understand that with everything else. To have resources to share requires that we support our local church with offerings. Not many people could afford what a single church seeks to accomplish in their own towns. But, enough of us contributing together can have enough to share with each other and the world outside of our four walls. Together we can make a bigger difference than we ever could alone.
Find a way to encourage people in your life.
My local church is Leslie First Baptist Church, it has been since 1839. I believe that churches should be a place where we are encouraged. Encouraged to be better believers, better citizens and family members. We are encouraged to look after each other and share the graced of God with each person we meet. It is a stronger movement when join together to encourage each other as we gather to put our resources into God’s plan for our community.
So in light of these thoughts about believing in the church how will you answer these two questions:
Can you pray for your friends to find a church to call home?
Will you find a church to join God in building something great?