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It is my privilege to pastor a Christian church filled with
imperfect people. You may react with astonishment at that statement because
maybe you feel Christians are perfect or at least better than most people. The
folks who make up the congregation of Lake Ridge Church are some of the most imperfect people I know, but they love God! I love the
church because it is a place that is full of people who have hangups and habits
that they are not afraid to share with others.
A few years ago, the announcement that the Clevleland Browns
were moving to Baltimore after 30
years in Cleveland devastated many
people. Among the many Browns fans interviewed, one man sat in his pickup truck
and wept as he said, "Now me and my family will have no place to go on
Sunday." What a sad commentary towards the church today. When people feel
that the church is a place that holds no meaning, no hope, and is unrelevant in
the world today, they turn to something that gives them a sense of community.
Greek word ekklesia the first time in the New Testament. That word comes from
two other words ek – meaning out or out of kaleo – meaning to call, ekklesia,
then, came to denote a group of people called out and assembled for a specific
purpose (religious or otherwise). So then the church is a group of people
called out of a life of sin and death and into a life that belongs to the Lord
and regularly gathers with the intention of worshiping, discovering and doing
the will of God, which is to influence the world for his kingdom.
The church is a community of people who gather around
a common interest with a common purpose.That interest is Christ and that
purpose is to represent him as best they can to you and the rest of the world.
So the question remains, “What does all that do for me on Tuesday afternoon?”
“How does church influence the rest of my life in more than a theoretical way?”
Those are valid questions because, lets face it, life is hectic. And on Tuesday
or Thursday or Friday or another day for that matter, it’s hard to remember
anything about Sunday Morning at church, let alone reflect the image of Christ
to the world.
But before going any farther let me say this; The Church, while created by God,
is populated by people.In other words, you will always be able to find people
in the church who have done or will do stupid things. I run into people all the
time that tell me they don’t go to church because it’s filled with hypocrites.
Actually, it’s simply filled with imperfect people who act in accordance with
their imperfections. Don’t expect this or any church to treat you perfectly
because no one is capable of doing that. You can expect the church to do it’s
best to relate to you the love of Christ and the grace He offers, but it will
do it imperfectly.
Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as
some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.” When we stop
going to church we loose contact with God’s people…fellowship suffers. And one
of the benefits of fellowship is that it give us opportunity to encourage one
another. Christianity means, not only relating to God, it means relating to
other people who are also believers. You became a part of a family. God says
that Christian life can only be lived in relationship to other Christians. The
Christian without a church family is like an orphan. The Bible says the church
is God’s family. Every Christian needs a believing family to associate with.
They need a church home.