Saturday, July 20, 2013

BE, don't GO

As we have been visiting for a church to call home, we have been looking to be challenged, encouraged, pushed to seek, and embraced by those who can walk alongside us.  The frustration with the cliquey-ness and fake conversations filled with spiritual platitude have brought me back to something my older brother told me several years ago when I expressed my dismay with the so-called christian influences in my life... He said "God doesn't call us to GO to church, He calls us to BE the church."

This statement illuminates truth in so many ways around me.  Although we have yet to find a "church home" we feel settled with, I can see how it is already all around me...


It's in the friends who welcome us into their homes with unconditional love and the freedom to share whatever is on our hearts...




It's in the hands of sweet neighbors who bring a meal without even knowing how much we needed it...


It's in the compassion of a woman who allowed herself to be vulnerable when she felt a tug to pray over me...

It's in the faithfulness of a friend who knows we don't always have to see eye to eye to be willing to drive to another state to be there for each other...


It's in the selflessness of a family who have taken our children in the blink of an eye, showed up to help on a moment's notice, and poured into us with mentorship on all things faith and family...


It's in the silence of a friend praying through each hospital stay, knowing no words are necessary...


Church is not in a pew or a gym or a well rehearsed sermon... it is in us.  It is in how we choose to touch the lives of the people around us, and how we will allow ourselves to be used.

Where is your church?

Please leave me a comment; it lets me know you're listening!

2 comments:

  1. Looks like you and your family have been blessed with "doers of the Word" and not just hearers only. How marvelous and wonderful is our Lord for His grace and loving kindness toward us. Makes my heart glad that you have such wonderful family of friends. God's Love, that's what it's all about.

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  2. Very touching and very true. We ARE the Church. We are His hands and feet. You should try St. James (not Catholic!)..it is Pastor Ted Haggard's church. He publicly fell from grace and it has been 8 years now and he's gone through clinical recovery from childhood sexual abuse and the psychologists say he is fully equipped now to walk through life and be a pastor again. Those who are "fake" and "judgemental" stay away from our church because they judge the pastor. It's been the best thing ever in that regard. He brings a "Stain" to the church they think and they want nothing to do with him, when in truth if Christ cannot redeem pastor Ted and restore him, who am I to think He could redeem me? We are pretty much a pharisee free church. They won't set foot in the door as to tarnish their reputations. Me? I like having a pastor who has been through it and has a new revelation of what grace really is.

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