We worship Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we seek to be Jesus' followers, to be His disciples, and finally, we seek to be His apostles, we seek to serve.
Faith without works is dead. James said that. For us, apostleship is the process of using our faith in a matter to help other people. Our Core Value statements-our Anchors to continue the nautical reference-are all acts of apostleship, reaching out to our neighbors. We emphasize this service, this ministry, because it is vital to the growth, sustainability, and progression of our Neighborhood. Serving one another in the name of Jesus is fundamental to the exercise of our faith. When we begin to serve someone else in His name, we have taken our faith out of the realm of a mental exercise, something we just give mental assent to, and we actually start to change our lives for the more Christ-like.
How is apostleship different from simply being a nice person? How is church different from a walk-a-thon for cancer research? Both serve others, both can happen on a Sunday morning. I think the difference is the neighborhood. You might have a friend or a group that goes with you on the walk-a-thon, but in the Neighborhood, you can build a network of people willing to push through to the Next Step. A church mobilizes people in the name of Jesus so that the church may become a sponsoring agency of the next walk-a-thon.
And maybe they can move the time to let more church-goers participate…
There is something else to apostleship. I am a pastor, it is my vocation, it is my call. I am daily trying to do "the Jesus thing." In the church, our members are busy people, busy with their jobs-especially in a time when the job market is so very fragile, busy with families-both the children being raised and the parents watched out for, busy with priorities, with commitments, with all the things that make up life. Many times, those choices are dictated from the outside. The boss, the family, the other thing is the driving force of how time is spent and time is given.
When engaged in an act of ministry, when being an apostle, the member of our Neighborhood has re-prioritized to put their relationship with Jesus on top. Coming to the realization that doing for another person in the name of Christ, for the love of Christ, by the grace of Christ, because you choose to, because you want to, because it is what you believe you do as a good person, a helping person, a saved person, and not because you 'have to' or are obligated to or because it is your turn or your job, I hope you realize that in that moment, to use the language of Scripture, you have been Christ for that other person. It is tough to get your head around that, but a marvel to get your heart around it.
Adoring the Bringer of our faith, learning to bring to others as the Bringer of our faith brings to us, and bringing to others the gifts that we have been brought, that is our purpose as a church. In accomplishing that purpose, we are building up our Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment