I’ve grown up in the church in many ways. Sure, I haven’t always been in church, but for most of my life I’ve been exposed to a traditional church setting. We’ve been going through two series at church, and both have been radically challenging my idea of church.
The first of the series was about discipleship. We’ve been going thought this in our Sunday morning gatherings. The second session is about how to be a GOOD home cell member, and this we’ve been going through on Wednesday nights at home cell.
Last Wednesday at home cell we watched a video and had a discussion about what discipleship is. It’s just so happens that being a GOOD home cell member involves discipleship, and thus the Wednesday evening message and Sunday morning messages tied up rather closely.
I felt incredibly challenged about our idea of church. I’ve always believed that church is about a Sunday gathering. Getting together on a Sunday for a time of worship and teaching. But over the past few years we’ve been taught that it’s beyond that. It’s about reaching out to the nations, telling the world about God and bringing Hm glory.
But with these two series I’ve started to realize that there is a step before that. And that step is building the body of believers here at home so that we can go out and tell the nations about God. And we go about that through discipleship.
What I used to believe about church
* Church is about a Sunday
* Home cell is a nice thing to have to recap and remember Sunday's message, and just connect with some people from church
* Some people are called to evangelize, and others are called to look after the evangelists
What I’m learning about the church
I’ve been thinking about these things, and I’m not so sure they’re all completely true. I believe that all are partly true, but not completely true. Here’s is what I’ve been thinking more recently:
* The church is the collective body of believers. That means that church is not about Sunday gatherings, but rather about God, and involves every single person who has a relationship with God. It's all about God.
* Home cells are a crucial part of doing life with other members of the body of Christ. They're about growing in knowledge and understanding of God, and growing in maturity as a Christian. Home cells are a crucial evangalism tool and discipleship tool.
* Some people are given the gift of evangalism, but that's not what I'm talking about. Discipleship is different. It is not optional to Christians, not a gift we are given or not given. It is bothing learning and teaching others to live like and be more like Christ. And part of discipleship is evangalism. The kingdom of God grows because we have a passionate relationship with God that we can't help share. It's a gift that we simple have to give to others because God causes us to love them and care for them.
Now there’s nothing to say that this is correct in any way, but at least I hope that this is closer to the truth.
So tell me, what do you think about the church, home cells and evangalism? Have I moved closer or further from the truth? Does it even matter? I look forward to hearing from you.