Tag: Being the Church

Buildings Don’t Matter

Leave a comment

Last time we talked about the fact that buildings can play a significant role in our efforts to advance God’s kingdom. Not every church has a facility from which to launch their kingdom-advancing efforts, and God doesn’t need buildings to do that, but the ones that do and use them well have a powerful ministry tool at their disposal. It is a good thing that we are preparing to build a building at my church. But in the grand scheme of things, buildings don’t advance God’s kingdom. The church does. Let’s talk about it.

Buildings Don’t Matter

I am not a church planter. Unless God does something dramatic—which I am not anticipating in the least—that’s not going to change. I’m pretty comfortable in the knowledge that He has called me to pastor churches that already exist—like this one…where I plan to be for a very long time. Now, I support church planters. I think they do good and important work. But If I’m being totally honest, I struggle some with the knowledge of just how many churches are out there that already exist and which need good pastors to lead them back to health and relevancy in their communities. 

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Romans 12:14

Leave a comment

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Another house of worship was attacked this past weekend. A man drove his truck into the building, and once he came to a stop, he started firing. He was eventually taken down after a brief shootout with police, but before that time he managed to kill or wound several members and set fire to the building, causing extensive damage and potentially killing even more. The church in America may not be the recipient of the extent of persecution as the church in places like Nigeria where scores are being brutally murdered each year by Islamic terrorists while the government looks on with apathy, but there is an evil force that is motivating more and more persecution of it. This is in spite of the current administration’s intentional efforts to put a stop to any federally sanctioned forms of persecution the previous administration quietly implemented. What are we supposed to do in the face of all of this? Paul tells us right here. Let’s talk about it as we continue our walk through his list of instructions that give some practical contours for living the life of Christ well.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 12:14-18

Leave a comment

“Indeed, the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,’ it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,’ it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Earlier this week we spent a bit of time with Paul’s characterization of the church as the body of Christ in Romans 12. I noted then that in 1 Corinthians 12, he explores this theme in a great deal more depth and detail. I also noted then that we were going to come back to the idea today through the lens of the latest season of Wednesday on Netflix. Well, here we are. I reviewed the first season here. We’re not going to do a full review of the second season today, but there was one scene and a minor theme that jumped out at me as filled to the brim with Gospel implications. Let’s talk about cousin Thing and disembodied parts.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Matthew 16:19

Leave a comment

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Over the last few Fridays (last Friday, of course, being an exception), we have been taking a long look at Jesus’ response to Peter’s confession of Him as Messiah in Matthew 16. Jesus’ response to Peter is the first mention of the church we encounter in the Scriptures, and the two verses here are perhaps the most important foundation statement on the church in the Scriptures. In our Wednesday night Bible study group, we’ve spent a total of nearly eight weeks talking about these two verses and exploring their implications for the church today as thoroughly as we can. Needless to say, there’s a lot here. This past week, we finally finished the section. Since we’ve touched on all the rest of it here as well over the last few weeks, I thought we would take a look at the last part of it too. Let’s reflect for a few minutes today on what Jesus meant by binding and loosing things on earth and in heaven.

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Matthew 16:15-18

Leave a comment

“‘But you,’ he asked them, ‘who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus responded, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I want to come back yet again this week to a passage we have looked at a couple of times recently, including just last week. If the church is the body of Christ, and if, as we talked about last time, the church is to be proclaiming the identity of Jesus to the world in everything we do, then what does it mean to be the church, and what should be the relationship of an individual follower of Jesus to the church? Let’s dig back in today to some more of the implications of what Jesus revealed about the church to His disciples.

Read the rest…