I grew up going to church. Over the 31 years of my church attendance I have experienced both the beauty and the hypocrisy that results in people gathering together around a common faith. This post is not about tearing down the church, it is not about its hypocrisy, or its ugliness. In fact I only mention it because I want you to know I do not have a sugar coated or brain washed view of the church.
That said, on various occasions I have found myself in several different types of church groups where I feel the need to zoom out and marvel at our group demographics. In our culture today choosing to spend our free time with people who are from different generations or tax brackets just doesn’t happen that often. It makes sense, people tend to group themselves based on common interests. Interests are no doubt heavily influenced by age and financial income…The Good News of Jesus Christ is not!
The message of Jesus has always remained the same and it has been entrusted to the Church of Jesus to take to every ethnicity, generation, economic class, and any other demographic you can think of. Because the gospel is for all people, it draws people together, not in spite of their differences, but in the midst of them. From there, we get to learn from each other: wisdom being passed down from generation to generation.
It is important however to note that the church is more than just a collective of people with common interest. Galatians 4:5 proclaims that those redeemed by Christ are also adopted children of God! The church is a family.
Now I can finally get to the reason I began writing this blog: I LOVE THE CHURCH.
It has been a joy to be a part of our local churches. Over the years the spiritual and personal growth in both Stacy and I, has had a direct link to our local churches. We have been taught, encouraged, helped, supported, corrected, and convicted as part of a family.
It is for this reason, that when we move to Africa we want to be about not only evangelism, but church planting. There should be a Church family for believers to run to, after all: How is a child to grow without a family? Without a family, how could they grow to future generations?
What a privilege it is to be a part of the family of God, let us then be about our Father’s work.
Thank you to Woodridge Community Church and Waukesha City Church for the vital roles you have played in our lives and the ministry God is giving us!
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