This is Church

Church was today. My church doesn't have a building. We meet in a building downtown, and in an elementary school lunchroom just down the road from my house.  Today, though, we met at the high school auditorium (the only auditorium in town) in one service. There were probably around three to four hundred people there. I don't know. I'm not a very good judge of amounts of people. What I do know, however, is that we met together as a body of believers to worship Christ.

  My friends, church is not where you meet. Church isn't about dressing up. Church is not simply going somewhere, listing to some music and the man up front, seeing your friends, and then going home. That isn't church. That is an empty, meaningless ritual. That is a reason people leave. It's boring. It's hollow. But it is not church, friend.
  Church is the fellowship of meeting together with others to worship. It is a sense of community as you come before God. It is the breaking of bread and the pouring of wine as you share communion.  "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.......This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." (from Luke 22)
 It is eucharisto- the act of giving thanks. It is giving thanks as one body, one fellowship, even as we walk this shadowy road. Even when our world threatens to fall.
 It is the people of the body of Christ meeting together to hear God. To be encouraged. To be challenged in their walk. To learn together.
 This is church.
  Is that how you treat it?
 Especially as a younger person, sometimes it seems that church is boring. That it isn't,almost, worth it. I think this is a trap we fall into,sometimes. Of believing that it has become too old-fashioned, too high-powered, too whatever. What do you think it is? I personally shy away from mega church type things. How can they love God? They're just trying to get rich. It's too impersonal. Maybe. Maybe not.But it's not mine to judge. I hate it when people are judgemental. But here I am, doing it.  We forget, often, that its still okay, even if it's not something we often do. Gd never said you can't have a drummer, or you have to have a liturgy. He did say "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." (Matthew 18:20) 
 It's about an honest gathering of people to seek the face and will of God together. If that's what it is, than it is good.
 I want to challenge you today. For the next few months, as you go to church, don't say "Darn, it's time for church. I wish I didn't have to go."
  Go to meet God. Go to worship together. Go to learn, to listen. To apply. Don't let what is said be of no consequence. Don't go, listen, and leave. Don't spend the rest of you're week like nothing ever happened. Go from that place a different person. Let the love of your Savior show in your daily life through the week. You are being watched. People want to know if there's something different about you. Let there be.  Go to work, to school, and remember that communion with God, and with others. Show it. Let there be something different. Let that be God.

That, my friends, is Church. See if you can treat it like that.

Love:)
R