Keep It Simple

So how would you describe your church? How would a first time visitor describe your church? What is the function of your church? These are questions we must answer as we labor in, attend and worship in the church house that Christ Jesus has placed us. There are a couple of things I think all church members and/or regular attenders should consider as they walk as children of the Most High. First lets us make sure we understand the definition of regular attender. The true meaning for the term regular attender, (I would refer to the Greek here but I don't know the Greek here so I will just stick to the basics), is someone who attends regularly. Unbelievable but true. No really if you are a member of a church or a regular attender it should be something pretty major to keep you from church. Did you know that you could schedule a vacation to leave on Sunday after church and come back Saturday. I know it is unbelievable, but I hear that there are people who actually do this very thing. Hey if you guys have attended my church you know I don't harp on you about not being in church every time the door is open; however, it is important. Your attendance is necessary for the spiritual growth of the church and yourself. I know the old saying, 'I do not have to attend church to be saved?' Yeah but you do have to do what Jesus Christ said when you are saved and He said do not forsake the assembling together (Hebrews 10:25). So where is your free pass? Better yet from whom did you get it?  Look, when you belong to a church family, you are a part of a team. Your presence is not only desired but it is needed. Quit making excuses for not being there, quit allowing everything to push you away and simply make going to church, you guessed it, nonnegotiable. When this happens the team begins to hit on all cylinders and great and mighty things happen. If the question, 'are we going to church today' is asked in your house on Sunday, then something is very wrong. Are we breathing? 

Anyway I am getting off on a tangent cause this blog is not even about church attendance, it is about the presence of the church. Is the church a place where hurting people go to feel the love of Christ Jesus? Is the church the place that hurting people go to have their needs met spiritually and physically? You see there are hurting people in the world that have not grown up in church and they may not know all the details of proper church attendance; their church behavior may not be exactly what you are looking for. They may not dress like you, talk like you or even think like you, but you know what, they are in church like you. And you may very well be the glimmering light in the visit, the hope that springs up, and provides an avenue to Jesus Christ. Yes, you really might be the only Jesus they have seen. You have to look past your ideas of what they should wear, how they should talk, and how they should believe, and you must see them as Jesus sees them. You must love them as Jesus Christ has instructed us to do, Mark 12:31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no other commandment greater than these.” When we do this we see them as Jesus sees them, in need of His love. It does not matter what they wear, how they talk, what they believe when they come into your church, my question will always be how do the believe when they leave. Let the love of Jesus flow through you and your church to others. The rest of the week we will be talking about church, church attendance and your role in the church. Thicken up your skin and take a look in the mirror and come to grips with the man or women looking back.


Reaching for Him,
Brother Big Daddy

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