Week after week, year after year, various expressions of the church have been meeting since it was first established in Jerusalem, but for what purpose?
This week, one of my brothers in Christ reminded us that as believers, sometimes we need to step back and examine ourselves to make sure we focus on the complete picture of the church that we find in Acts.
In his conversation, he likened the church to our muscular system and spoke about what might happen when someone just lies in bed and eats without any exercise. His focus was not just on the amount of weight that a person might gain, but the potential atrophy that can occur when we stop using and exercising our muscles.
If someone decided to stay in bed and eat, neglecting to get out of bed for an extended amount of time for any reason they may eventually discover that when the will to move did come, the ability to move would no longer be present; they would have become immobilized.
His point was that as believers and as a church, we occasionally need to make sure we are exercising all of the muscles of the body of Christ, being aware that if we neglect to move in one area for too long, we too will experience a type of atrophy, becoming immobilized and stagnant.
As I have reflected on his statements throughout the day, praying that God would speak to me and remind of the full purpose of the church, I begin to think through it in a visual way, through motions or movements that the body of Christ uses to expresses our purpose, almost if you will a type of dance.
I've never been much of a dancer. If you were to ask my wife if I can dance, she would undoubtedly tell you no after she managed to control her laughter. I have, however, witnessed people dancing. I mean, I am familiar with the process. Our family has been to weddings or events where the crowd dances the Cha Cha Slide and you immediately see "those in the know". They are the ones who know when to hop left or right, backward or forward, the ones who are enjoying the dance because they know the movements.
Doesn't that sound a lot like what church should be?
Small movements, all part of a larger dance, leading to our joy.
So, what are the movements? What are the motions of our dance?
We Lift Up
The primary purpose for our gatherings week after week is to seek, celebrate, and worship the one true God of the Bible who is our Creator, Savior, and Sustainer. As a local body, the people of God meet to worship him in "spirit and in truth" (John 4:23), through prayer (1 Chron 16:11), singing (Isa 42:10), preaching (Rom 10:14), and participation in the ordinances of baptism (Col 2:12) and communion (Matt 26:26-28).
We Press In
Another reason for joining a local body that is important for the believer is to become part of a gospel-centered community. The benefits for uniting with a church body are overwhelming. As a member of a local body, we share in the responsibility of encouraging one another to spiritual maturity through loving relationships. There is no perfect church, but we should strive to help cultivate a church where believers love one another (John 13:35), are encouraged by the beauty and promises of God (Phil 1:6), are safe to confess their sin (James 5:16), and are held accountable through loving discipline performed in fear and humility before God if needed (2 Thess 3:14-15).
When these elements are functioning as God has intended, what happens next is miraculous...God works in and through his people.
The people of God not only worship God, but they press into who he is. Their lives are transformed, their thinking, their desires, and their actions are refocussed and they are equipped and empowered to take what they have learned within to those who are without (Eph 4:11-16).
We Reach Out
The primary mission of the church is not to stay hidden away in a building, but to get out (Matt 28:16-20). Regardless of where we are, we must remember what we are. We are missionaries.
Stop just for just a minute and think about our mission.
Most of the time we consider it an obligation, a responsibility, or a duty.
But what if we thought of it a different way. What if we approached missions as not just something we do, but as an extension of who we are?
We are imperfect, we are undeserving, we are ungrateful, we are rebellious, but we have been loved. We have been the recipients of grace and have been adopted as sons and daughters of God who has asked us to call him Father. What if rather than thinking of it as a duty we could count it a privilege and a joy to share our hope with those who have no hope?
If we, myself included, could really grasp this, it changes our whole perspective. The question is no longer, who can I reach, but rather who can't I reach with the gospel? When we spend time in worship before God, time in study and prayer with other believers, time saturating our selves with him we will naturally be on mission locally and seek to support the work of others both spiritually and financially who also take the gospel out on a global level.
I remember last year, running over a skunk that was crossing the road. I attempted to stop and swerve and miss it, but I just couldn't do it. The smell instantly filled my car and penetrated every fiber of my clothing. I went on to work and without saying anything, without a huge sign, without eloquent words, my coworkers knew what had happened.
On a spiritual level, that is what I'm after... my desire is that God will so captivate his people that we will smell of him. That he penetrates and permeates every fiber of our being so that wherever we are, he is glorified and made much of by his people.
We Look Forward
As believers, we gather together to look forward. We remind each other that there will be a day that the trials and temptations, the pain and the heartache will cease. That the time will come when we will no longer wrestle against our sinful nature. A time when we will see him and be made like him (1 John 3:2).
However, as we meet and rejoice on our own accounts that this day of restoration is approaching, we also weep for those who have rejected the grace of God, for they will not be embraced by his love, but rejected in his wrath.
So in the forward gaze of the church, we not only thank God for our own salvation, we ask that he would continue to turn hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, that he would give life to the dead and freedom to those in bondage, and that those who have no hope will repent and confess him as their Savior and Lord.
So, as we are reminded of the purpose, the steps, the movements of the church; I leave you with a single question, an invitation to the body of Christ.
May I have this dance?
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