What happened to church?
This fresh set of Daily Devotions is being provided for our LCA/NZ family, friends and visitors to help us to keep our eyes on Jesus as we face unsettling times. They can be used by families and individuals as part of the LCA/NZ’s Church@Home resources to encourage us and build trust in our Heavenly Father during this season of uncertainty and physical isolation.
by Pastor Robin Stelzer
Click here for your printable verse to carry with you today.
Consider how we may spur one another on to love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together … but let us encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24,25).
I am attending a new form of church – by Zoom, at home, with Lis only. It’s so bizarre after a long lifetime of gathering together, in a church building, in touch with present friends, family, kids. And overflowing from worship inspiration, conversations and faith-building relationships. And we often have our wide family with us – 19 in all.
I want my church back, please Lord!
‘What do you mean, back? You already have it. Check your Bible: it’s my body, my saints, my sheep, members one of another, chosen, children of God.’*
‘Well, yes Lord, but isn’t it really about Sundays, altars, sermons and sacraments – in church! Besides, that is what I’m familiar with and comfortable with.’
All this is making me reconsider. Someone said to me: maybe it would help us understand that church is not a building, but a people. Maybe we can better learn what it means to be Jesus’ disciples, with gospel news to share, rather than his ‘church members’, living in our comfortable church-life routines.
Lord, is this a time when you are getting your church back? Is this a time for us to get closer to the millions of saints who worship in hiding because of persecution? Is this a time for drawing near to you and to each other in ways that are person-centred more than buildings-centred?
What happened to church? Maybe it’s not about what we have lost, but about gaining and sharing more of Christ, who we cannot lose.
Lord of the church, hold us close to you as you did in the early church. Use this time to draw us near, to see you and worship you in every way we can. Show us how to rejoice in the wide family of saints who are spread across our troubled world. Amen.
* 1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 1:1, 1 Peter 5:2, Ephesians 4:25, 1 Peter 2:5, 1 John 3:2
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