Developing life-giving community

 

If church is limited to what happens on Sunday morning, then I want nothing to do with it. If Sunday morning is the totality of what it means to be a Christian then I'm looking for something more exciting to do on Sunday morning. Thankfully, there is much more to church and to being a Christian than what many church services lead us to believe. 

We need an understanding of church that is so much broader then a couple hour program on Sunday morning. We are legalistic to the core. We want to know the right thing to do so that we can quickly check it off of our checklist and move on with our lives. We feel that going to church is a good thing and that it will make us a good person so we put forth the minimal effort required to appease our conscience and continue living in smug, self-righteousness. We try to be our own mini saviors; we merely all have different standards as to what it takes to save ourselves.

But going to church saves no one. Jesus alone saves.

The Bible defines church as a community of people connected to Jesus and to one another through the salvation that comes from Jesus' sacrificial death in our place. Church is not primarily an event or service; church is an identity and responsibility given to every true follower of God.

The church is a community of people with a responsibility to love, support, and selflessly care for one another; to comfort one another in suffering and hold one another accountable in sin; to be faithful and persevere through difficulties and disagreements; and to share the love and forgiveness received from God with one another. When true to its calling, the church is the most life giving community that exists.