This Family Went to Church on Sunday... and You Won't Believe What Happened Next

"... the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28

"Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, 'Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.'" Mark 9:35

I've been reading through the gospels lately... I started with Luke.. then went to Matthew, and when I finished Matthew I felt as if I had just finished a really amazing novel and was sad to see it come to an end... so I started reading Mark.

One of the things that has truly struck me in these last few months of studying the gospels, is the necessity... well... really the mandate for which we are called to serve the body of Christ. Today the Lord was teaching me about what it means to truly honour and to serve our parents, which is another blog post all together... But today I want to write about what I've learned about our relationship with the church, our eternal family... And how to honour and serve God, our Father... and the church...

The wise John Calvin once said:

"To those to whom he is a Father, the Church must also be a mother. This was true not merely under the Law, but even now after the advent of Christ; since Paul declares that we are the children of a new, even a heavenly Jerusalem." --John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25

First of all... being a part of an actual church body is super important. My pastor, Reverend Jon Vickery, has often said that as Christians we need to addict ourselves to the church, addict ourselves to being with other believers, etc. We need to feel compelled and the weight of how important it is to give God the honour and worship He is due, by being at church to worship God. But we also need to feel the weight of how important it is to serve within the church body.

When the disciples started muttering and questioning which one of them is the greatest... Jesus told them, "The first will be last, and the last shall be first." For all of my years in the church, I felt that statement was a little vague... It's so like Jesus to talk in parable and in little thought provoking sentences... and so like him to talk in a way that if you don't care to think it over, you will miss the point all together. It may have been obvious to you, but Jesus wanted his disciples to know that serving others was the most important thing to do in the kingdom.

I have grown up in the church... I've seen the ugly parts... the underbelly (if you will) of church politics.... and in every single situation where these ugly situations occur, it is when people have forgotten what their duty is to the church... to their pastors... to one another.

When we want to be seen as important in the church, when we want to be heard... that is the first sign we are headed for disaster... And we actually ALL have the ability to take part in destroying a church body...






White space... so that you feel the weight of your part in THE church.




So, if you want to be a part of a healthy church body... it has to begin with you. It has to begin with you serving your church... serving others within your church body.

When we view the church as a place that we go to on Sunday mornings to be fed... we are missing the entirety of the point of "the gathering together of believers". The point is to encourage one another... to serve one another... to worship God. And to worship God requires sacrifice.

We must sacrifice our time.
We must sacrifice our need to be fed.
We must serve and feed others.

Worshipping God doesn't always look like learning something new about God, or feeling refreshed. Worshipping God demands sacrifice (of time and money), and sometimes that looks like taking a turn in the nursery... or holding a mother's baby so that the new mom can listen to a sermon for once... or sacrificing extra hours on Sunday to make sure things are cleaned up... or baking something so that people can spend time with one another over a cup of coffee and a lovely piece of coffee cake.

Serving the church may mean sacrificing an evening once a week to spend time with other people's teenagers and teach them about who God is.

Serving the church may mean sacrificing an evening once a week to teach someone else's young children about who their God is.

The church should look like that village we always hear so much about... "It takes a village to raise a child." It should be families partnering with families, so that our kids can grow up knowing that the body of Christ is their true family... and that the church is our home.. and where we belong.

I want my kids to grow up knowing that the most important thing in our life is "the church" and serving "the church". Our gaze should be on eternity... heaven, the new heavens and the new earth.