If we limit church to what takes place when we gather in meetings, we fail to understand its intended purpose and potential.
The word church, chosen by Jesus himself, means to come together for the good of the people. In essence, it means to rally, to come together again to prepare to face a new and common foe. When Jesus first used the term church, it was in this context, ‘And on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Jesus envisioned his gathered ones storming the very gates of Hell and tearing them down. His vision of the gathering is not so much about what we might accomplish sitting in static meetings as it is about together accomplishing work that ends up being a direct confrontation of the work of the Enemy. He calls us together in order that we together will battle the enemy.
Can you reimagine church?
Imagine a collective of people who are conspiring together to battle against the established and ongoing work of the Enemy wherever it is found. Is it found in the hearts of doubting would-be aetheists? Then the church must be there. Is it found in the broken lives of professing Jesus-followers? Then the church must be there. Is it found in the crime and poverty of an urban landscape? Then the church must be there. Is it found in the suburban town counsel? Then the church must be there. Is it found among single moms caught up in a cycle of fear and despair? Then the church must be there.
We exist to encourage and equip men and women in order to release them into these and other battles against darkness wherever it is found.
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Nothing will change the world more powerfully than the love of Christ shared with a world that so desperately needs it.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
Even a small light holds back darkness and a group of small lights can banish it completely.
Merely attending church doesn’t make you much of a church because sitting in a row, consuming church doesn’t make you very good at being the church.
If the wrongdoer has to do something to merit mercy, then it isn’t mercy.
By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
You can’t build the future of the church on passionless, disengaged people. Nor can you build it on consumers.
The difference between humanity and all the rest of creation is that men and woman were made to relate directly with God.
Genuine spiritual knowledge lies in the union of the believer’s life with the truth of God.
To exist without the pursuit of God’s mission in the world is to exist as something other than the church.
“God was the first ever missionary when he went out in search of a man and a woman who had betrayed Him in order to bring them back into fellowship with Him.”
Eddy Ho