For most people we have been conditioned to view church as a
place that we go to, as in a destination.
While that is certainly a truism, again for most people, the journey
appears to end there, at the church, discounting the fact that one must leave
the church to go home, for example.
And while going to church is certainly a welcomed
destination, I think that we have the whole process backwards. The current
mindset is that we come from the world and go into the church. I am suggesting
that we reverse that process whereby we come from the church and go into the
world.
But if we perceive church to be the starting point, then
when we leave church we take what we have learned into the world because “the
world” is now the destination, it is where God intends us to take His Word.
In Matthew 28:19, Jesus tells his disciples to “Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit….” The disciples were commanded to leave The
Master, Jesus, and go into the world to make disciples.
Metaphorically speaking, Jesus was the church while He was on this earth, and from the Book of Acts we also learn that the early followers of the Risen Christ leftJerusalem
Metaphorically speaking, Jesus was the church while He was on this earth, and from the Book of Acts we also learn that the early followers of the Risen Christ left
And what is “the church”? For me, the church is anywhere we
encounter God’s Word. It can be my Sunday place of worship; a Bible Study meeting;
hearing God’s Word from various media sources; fellowship with believers;
reading The Holy Bible; time spent in prayer or in our “secret place”; or just
time alone with God.
Therefore, let us take God’s church into the world instead of
keeping His church all to ourselves.
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