Gathering

So several church surveys are telling us that a committed church member can now be identified as someone who attends at least once per month. Apparently, as a Pastor, that’s meant to make me feel better. No prizes for guessing it doesn’t.

I’ve got two choices, as I see it. One, I can philosophize and say well, ‘we are all so much busier than we use to be, ‘ and other emotion settling phrases. Or I can read my Bible, look at early Christians and say, ‘these guys were devoted, and we should be too.’ I choose the latter.

The gathered church is so important and always has been. Reading the book of acts you find phrases repeated like, ‘they were ALL together in one place,’ ‘they met daily in the temple courts,’ ‘they broke bread from house to house.’ The reality these people met MORE than we do for worship, prayer, instruction in the word and so on.

Our faith cannot become convenient or else it becomes powerless, there’s a radical, full-on nature to following Jesus and that includes being with and part of his people.

See you in church.