Fellowship: Its a Scary Word

Jesus had a plan to work through relationships to change the world.  He told his disciples, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  John 13:35  The scary thing about this plan is that it involves you and me and how we treat each other being the basis of whether or not people believe in Jesus.

In a week where people in our country get caught up in phony fears and fake fright, this ought to be a real concern of the church.  Sunday we will focus on the fellowship function of the church.  We will also use this time to come together to observe the Lord's supper.  I pray that you and I will come having treated each other in a way that makes the world say, "I want to be a part of that."  It truly is scary to think of what happens when we don't and the world says, "I don't want anything to do with that."

Perhaps Francis Schaeffer said it best, "We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus' claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of oneness of true Christians.  Now that is frightening.  Should we not feel some emotion at this point?"

For the journey...

The Cost and Joy of Following Jesus

There is no way to sugar coat what Jesus said about being his disciple.  "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."  Luke 9:23  He tells us up front it will not be easy. 

What Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship brings that more into light, "To deny oneself is to be aware of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us."

But with all the reality of costs there is also the reality of great benefits.  Many people can try to sell you on the benefit side but it helps to go back to something else Bonhoeffer said, knowing that it comes from a man who followed Christ all the way to his death in a Nazi concentration camp.

"If we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us?  What decisions and partings will it demand?  To answer this question we shall have to go to him for only He knows the answer.  Only Jesus Christ who bids us follow Him, knows the journey's end.  But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy.  Discipleship means joy."

There is a cost.  There is a joy that makes it all worth it.  That is what we will look at Sunday.  As you come to worship Sunday, watch for a sign on containers that asks you to take one of the contents into worship with you.  It will be a way that you can mark your journey in discipleship.  See you Sunday.

For the journey...

A Single Invitation

As I perpared for Terry Smith's memorial service, I read through the testimony that he wrote down when he became a deacon in our church.  He ended it with single sentence, "It all started with a friend asking me to go to Sunday School."  That stood out for him as a pivotal moment in his life.

I reflected on that life - a life of service to God, a life of loving others, a life of raising a wonderful family, a life of giving of himself to others.  But the significant turning point in Terry's mind was when that friend in Uvallde, Texas asked the kid whose father had died a few years before - the kid who did not go to church  - to simply come to Sunday School with him.

Does that friend have any idea what started with that single invitation?  Can they even comprehend all the things God set in motion with that simple request?  Evangelism is not that hard, becasue God wants to do things through us that we could never do on our own.

Some day, in the future, as your friends look back on your their lives, will they have a similar pivotal moment to point to because you were a faithful witness in giving a single invitation?  Why not give it a try this week?

Simmering before Sunday

Rod Cooper, Billy Graham and yours truly are all boys raised on a dairy farm who grew up to be Baptist preachers.  Yes, Billy is in a class all by himself but something Rod wrote about his experience growing up hit home with me. 

Rod, like me and Billy, had to get up very early to help with the morning milking. By the time he came to the house for breakfast his mom had often started a pot of soup for the day.  When Rod came in for lunch he always expected the soup to be ready, it smelled so wonderful.  When finding out the soup was for dinner, he asked why do we have to wait on it all day.  To which his mom would reply, "Son, it needs to simmer so we get all the juices out of all the ingredients.  And then they're all mixed together and it gives off this wonderful aroma so when you taste it, you're getting the best of what's in each ingredient."

Rod observed that is the way he has begun to see worship.  God's people at their best have been simmering in His presence all week.  Then when we come together on Sunday morning we mix all of it together to give God something pleasing, bringing the best out of each ingredient; 'a pleasing aroma to God.'

That is a good way to think of worship.  That is a good way to approach worship.  And that is a good way to approach each day.  Simmering for Sunday.  Try it this week.

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved..."  2 Corinthians 2:15

For the journey...

Grasping the Essentials

How do you boil the Christian life down to the essentials?  Once you have done that, how do you encooperate them into your life? 

There are five basic functions of the church and for the church to be fully functional, we as individual believers must grasp these essentials: worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship and ministry. Years ago I saw an illustration of how to remember those using your hand, each finger reminds us of something essential.

• Thumb - Worship.  It comes first and enables us to grip the things of God.
• Fore Finger - Evangelism.  It is the finger we use to point and we should always point others to God.
• Middle Finger - Discipleship.  It has grown longer than the others and reminds us we are to keep growing in Christ.
• Ring Finger - Fellowship.  We mark our relationships with our ring finger.  It reminds us that we have a family, a church that we belong to and we have a commitment to them.
• Little Finger - Ministry.  This is our weakest finger and reminds us that there are those who are not as strong and need help.

Now look at your hand and picture these things.  Make a fist, grip something tight.  Think about these five functions and ask yourself, "Where am I strongest?"  "Where am I weakest?"  "Where is God working on me the most right now?"  It is a quick way to do a self examination of your spiritual life and how you are really doing.

Sunday we begin a series on the five functions of the church -"Fully Functional."  God wants us to become a fully functional church by making us fully functional Christians.  Come join us on the journey...