YOUR CHURCH IS YOU
You are a walking advertisement of your church and the Christ whom it proclaims.
You take the church out of its four walls, and make it live in the everyday affairs of life.
Some have the idea that the pastor is the church. It is true that the pastor often speaks for the church, declares what it stands for, and invites people into its fellowship. It is the pastor’s job to know the church’s business and to act on its behalf. The pastor is your representative, but certainly not your substitute.
The preaching in the pulpit is fruitless unless it is reflected in the lives of members of the congregation. Classroom teaching is ineffective unless it comes to life in the attitude and behavior of people. Your church is measured not so much by what its leaders say as by what you do. You are the means by which the good life advocated by the church is communicated to people.
Your church professes a concern for people; you express that concern in the way you act toward others. Your church tries to build up a Christian world; you validate these attempts by your community. Your church claims to have a gospel that will make people new, opening to them a fuller life; you are the demonstration of that claim.
Your daily acts as a Christian preach more sermons, teach more people, and save more lives than the words that are spoken inside the four walls of your church building. You are a cell of the living church. Without you, the church has no life.
Living is the art of Loving
Loving is the art of Caring
Caring is the art of Sharing
Sharing is the art of Living
The First Church of God
Ft. Lauderdale FL
Thanks to Marie for this contribution. It is right on!
And a good thing to remember as we make our way to the cross in 2009.
Grace and peace,
Lucia
