Church is Something You Are, Not Where You Go: The Mission is Here!
Lent 5: Church is where one goes, not something one is. The cares of the world and the mission of the church is left at the door — sometimes going in AND going out.
You gotta Die a little! ( Promises )
Jesus would say it a different way. Jesus says, “You gotta die a little” in being a faithful follower of God. There is a giving up of self (that means our desire to control everything) in order to honor the father. One has to lose ones’ self to save life. There is dying in order to rise to his glory.
Church is something You Are, not where you go: Called to Something Big!
When we see ourselves as ‘church’ and when church is about being rooted in Christ and teamed together with others for the sake of the kingdom; we begin to understand that we’re into and onto something big.
Take Me to a Better Life!
This is God’s truth. Salvation and healing are found in facing who we are. When we’d rather run, we are invited to stare at Jesus, hanging on the cross, the Son of Man lifted up for us. We are invited to come face to face with our sin – the sin which Jesus carried to the cross on our behalf.
Church is something you are, not where you go: Why the Synod?
Synod is “us”: a multifaceted, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-generational diverse and yet highly integrated system. Synod helps us to remember that we are not an island. We are a team joined to the heart of God for implications in the Kingdom.