You can find the video here: https://www.facebook.com/RichlandNaz/videos/168032864458013/
Ok – we’ve had some great discussions lately here in the comment’s section of our live streams. So a couple of things – help me out – remember to check in at Richland COTN when you are watching, like and follow our Facebook page, and share these morning devotions.
Today in the comment section, keep saying good morning. I love seeing everyone who are watching. I look at it after, Bobbi is usually watching with all of you, greeting you to the live stream. But if you would, say a few words to describe things you see changing in the church today.
So based on some of our previous time together , we have talked about the Church and how we – you and me are the Church. The church is not the building or denomination, you and I are the Church.
I would hate to come out of this time without examining what we do as a church. Or without reevaluating what our priorities are as a church. I believe, It’s time to rethink the mission of the local church. Because being a part of the church is more than attending a service, more than giving in the offering. Being part of the church is about connecting with a community to pursue a common goal—Jesus. The church, as a whole, is meant to care for each other, grow together, and reach the world together.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26 (NIV) Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
This Scripture highlights the need for community and fellowship within the body of Christ. We’re all moving toward the same goal, and we need to look out for and care for each other as we move forward . Often, the church can become a place of competition rather than community, it often happens. We must rethink our motives if we want genuine love to thrive.
The Greek word “koinonia” can be translated into community, commonness, communion or fellowship. And in each sense that it’s used, it implies a couple of elements. First is a deepening relationship and friendship. Second is this sense of coming together to develop common vision, goals or priorities.
This word is also used when we read about the Trinity. Now the word Trinity is not in the Bible. But when the New Testament describes the relationship of the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit - this word koinonia is used to convey this intertwined relationship of God, or how God lives in community.
Remember a few days ago, when I spoke of being plugged in, that the branches need to be plugged in or grafted into the vine. Let’s refresh - God the Father is the vine, Jesus’ resurrection power is the life flowing through the vine, and we are connected by the Holy Spirit grafting us into the vine. Not only is this how we are to live in relationship with God, this is also how we are to live together as the Church. This is how the Church needs to be in relationship with each other.
Jesus asked God the Father to do this, not just for His Disciples who were present with Him then, but also for all of those who would come to follow Him through their teaching.
John 17:20-21 (NIV) “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the perfect reflection of what it means to live in koinonia.
And this is Jesus’ prayer to the Father, on our behalf that we would experience this same depth of relationship with God (Father, Son, HS) and that we would reflect this in our relationships as the Church.
So as you go through today drop a line in the comments of this live stream of what God is laying on your heart, describing what Rethinking the Church – and especially fellowship can look like from here on out.