October 20, 2009
Ownership
In our lifetime many of us have attended only one church, or been affiliated with one denomination. When your church is the only church you’ve ever known, mature believers often wear that fact as a badge of honor, like old-guard member status. It wasn’t until recently that my sister Shelly took an interest in attending church with us. As she began getting acquainted with folks she said, “You know there are just some really nice people there.” I’m still wondering what exactly she’d expected to find. Now under hospice care, Shelly has only been able to attended worship services a handful of times, but we are her church…we’re the only church she’s ever known.
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Gail;
-----I have a hard time finding Scriptural support for having a relationship with a church. I find some support for being built into the Lord’s temple and being a member of His body. And I find a great deal of support for having relationships with those who are also built into it. The difference may appear to be minor, but church has almost become a surrogate program for the activities of fellowship meant to happen amongst a group of individuals. And that difference is great. On the one hand, the church receives the support and labors of the believers, its property is acquired and safeguarded by the contributions of the saints, its programs and services are performed and attended as objectives, and its identity is carefully groomed an maintained. Those who participate in it share in its identity, beliefs, and practices and give of their bounty to its maintenance. But on the other hand, believers receive the support and labors of one another, their needs are met and safeguarded by the contributions of the saints, their efforts and services for the Lord are encouraged and assisted as objectives, and the Lord’s identity is carefully groomed and maintained amongst them. Those who participate in one another are encouraged and affected by each other’s identity, beliefs, and practices and give of their bounty to help maintain each other and assist in their services to the Lord. On the first hand, an organization and its activities are the objective of serving the Lord, and the attendees assist in it. On the second hand, the believers and their activities are the objectives of serving the Lord, and the church is organized to assist them.
-----I suppose most people agree, and many believe this is what the church already is. To one degree or another, most churches have at least an aspect of facilitating the fellowship of the believers, however, we all still return to our own corners of the community each Sunday where we attend the worship services of The This Church, or The That Church, or The Other Church, making it painfully obvious that each church is really more objectified than we are comfortable to admit. All the same, we bob about on this stirring sea of difficulty within a lifeboat of whatever shape the Lord has fashioned from our fellowship, and within it He will still draw us to His shore of peace. Whatever its condition, a church works well for the Lord’s objectives because He is in it through the hearts of those who are in Him and are there. And the more of these who are there, the better the church works.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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