Gracenotes

Christ outside the church?  Who are we ‘christians’ to think that Christ is confined to within the walls of our churches?  Last week the small group I am a part of had the opportunity to watch a recording of Reggie McNeal from a recent speaking engagement.  Reggie has written a number of books, in a nutshell the primary focus of which is the Missional Church.

Since listening to Reggie about a week ago there are a couple of things which keep coming to mind.  The first stems partially from how I was brought up in the church.  There had been an underlying mindset that Christ is at work in the church (the building) using ‘our’ human-led programs for the purpose of bringing the ‘non-believer’ into the kingdom.  This in itself is likely true, but there was also this other thought that ‘non-christians’ didn’t trouble themselves with spiritual matters and that Christ wasn’t actively at work in their lives.  The point being that the church needs to accept the fact that Christ is working, and often we are lagging behind and unwilling to be active participants in building His kingdom.

I had the opportunity to talk to a young family who recently started joining us for services on Sunday.  Following the service I introduced myself and the conversation quickly moved from pleasantries to how Christ is working in their lives and the expressed need for Christ in their government assisted housing complex.  There is a deep yearning.. need.. for people to know the Creator.  The church body needs only to show up, show Christ’s love and be His hands and feet.

The second thing which comes to mind is that we need to pray expectantly that God will ‘show up’ and do great things when we venture outside of the church walls into our local communities.  Sometimes I think believers including myself lack faith and shy away from evangelistic opportunities.  What if I say something out of line?  Look foolish? What if I don’t do it right and God doesn’t ‘show up’?  Hey I don’t think I am ‘gifted’ in this type of ministry, so I’ll sit on the sidelines.  I would say the only ‘gifting’ required is to be human and being led by God.

I challenge anyone who stumbles across this blog to pray expectantly that Christ will use you, and give you the opportunity to share His love with others.  He will be there, we just need to make ourselves available and step out in faith.

I have decided to focus less on polished blogging.. my apologies to every english teacher I have ever had..

My thoughts for the moment.