Good disciples—great disciples—do church together. They don’t just do meetings; they do life as partners. They are co-laborers committed to one single purpose, the advancement of God’s Kingdom and the fulfillment of His mission: to help people find and follow Jesus.
Great disciples serve others selflessly and sacrificially. They get off the bench and get into the game. They find needs and use their gifts to meet them through God’s grace and power.
Great disciples make it a priority to practice the teachings of Jesus at home, at work and in their neighborhoods. Of course, they’re not even close to perfect, but they practice what they preach, and they never stop learning and growing.
Great disiples don’t just attend church. Instead, the church is something they attend to with every ounce and fiber of their being because the church is the Bride of Jesus, the Body of Christ and the family of God.
For these amazing followers, church is not a sacred place filled with pews, candles and stained glass; it’s how they do life.
They understand that the church is people. God’s forgiven and grace-filled people loving, learning, growing, serving and caring for each other and the world in Christ’s name.
Certainly the church is far from perfect and at times even messy. But it’s a fellowship of the broken who lay their lives down for one another because their Lord laid down His life for them.
So, let me be clear…
I’m not suggesting anyone stop gathering with the church on Sundays. Our regular and faithful involvement in a worship service is essential to our growth.
In a church service on Sunday is where we celebrate together. That’s where we can learn from the teaching gifts God has given His church. That’s where we can invite our friends and family to “come and see” because we know they will encounter something beautiful, authentic and life changing.
So show up when the doors are open (not 15 minutes late, btw). God created DVRs so you could record the Seahawks and not miss a far better celebration of the saints!
As my pastor and friend Joe Wittwer loves to say, “You can’t truly be the church without attending. Church isn’t something I can be by myself. The word for church in the New Testament was ekklesia, and it’s the Greek word for a civic meeting. The church is people meeting together because of Jesus. You can’t eliminate the meeting part and still be the church.”
Of course, gathering with the church matters. But please don’t just sit in a meeting. Don’t just attend without engaging. Don’t just do your church-thang a couple of times a month (the average for most, now), and think you’ve done your duty.
Be the church in every way, as both a force in the world and as a connected community of faith. Today. Now.
Demonstrate the radical love and power of Christ wherever you are.
Yup, I hope to see ya Sunday, and Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday…loving Jesus and being the church everywhere, and all of the time.
24 Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them
toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love.
25 This is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together,
as some have formed the habit of doing, because we need each other!
In fact, we should come together even more frequently,
eager to encourage and urge each other onward as we anticipate that day dawning.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (The Passion Translation)
This article originally appeared here.
