Has anyone ever said to you, “I can talk to God anywhere, so I don’t need to go to church?” Yes, you can talk to God anywhere. We can also study the Bible on our own.
But as Scott Ball says, “There is no Christianity in the Bible that exists apart from the Christian community.” God is a relational being. God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – all communing and working together.
The Triune God created human beings to be in relationship with their Creator and with each other. Even Jesus didn’t go it alone. He gathered people around him to walk this journey into the unknown. He didn’t tell them to go off by themselves and wait for him to appear after his death. They were to gather with one another and await the gift of the Holy Spirit so they could go out and bring the good news of God’s love to the world. He even said that “the world will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another.”
They gathered to commune with one another, encourage each other, to go through the difficulties of life supporting each other. They prayed together, ate together, cried together, laughed together. I am sure they also argued together – they were human after all – and hopefully, made things right together.
This year, as part of my continuing education, I am participating in a 5-session webinar put on by Discipleship Ministries called Crafting Sacred Moments: A Webinar Series for Worship Planners. From my first session:
Corporate worship:
· Shifts our focus outward from ourselves to others
· Creates community
· Lifts hearts
· Offers grace
· Shapes our understanding & practice of Christian living
· Feeds us
· Drives us
· Forms us
· Sends us
We don’t come to church because we are perfect. Or because we can only talk to God in church. Or because we can’t understand the Bible unless someone tells us what to think about it.
We come to church to walk this journey into the unknown together. This journey of extravagant love. We don’t always get it right – just like the early church didn’t always get it right – but we come together to help one another as best we can. “We love because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
It is good to be in ministry together with you,
Pastor Lisa