Why Church?

As I write these words, it's Sunday morning and I am sitting at my computer in my office in our church's facility. I almost wrote, "in my office at church," but that would not really be accurate. This building in which I am comfortably sitting is not my church, although the building is "owned" by my church (of course, in reality it like EVERYTHING else is owned by God - but that is a topic for another post!). This building, built in three phases (1980, 1991, 2003) was constructed to facilitate the mission and ministry of our church. That is why I referred to it in my opening sentence as "our church's FACILITY." So this building exists merely as a tool to assist our church in fulfilling our mission .... and just what is our mission?

I have been doing a lot of thinking on that lately ... and as I see it, our church is here to first and foremost GLORIFY GOD! He is what life is all about. We were made for HIM (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 1:16, 18) and we were saved for HIM (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And just how are we to best glorify the God who made us and then went on to rescue us from our sin and rebellion against Him? For starters by obeying the GREAT COMMANDMENTS which tell us we must LOVE GOD with all we are and have and LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). In addition, we must also strive to fulfill the GREAT COMMISSION which Jesus mandated for us His Church. This commission tells us that we must be seeking to make disciples of all nations! And Jesus, who has all authority, promises to be with us as we seek to reach this world for Him!

So there you have it ... as I sit in this wonderful office -- I am reminded on this particular Sunday that this office is here to help me and my church glorify God by loving Him, loving others and reaching our world for Jesus!

Thanks for listening,

pj