Share Life With Fellow Believers
They devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. – Acts 2:42
It’s one of those things that boggles the minds of
those who see it happening. We don’t know how to change it. Invitations fall on
deaf ears. How do we get people to be more than Sunday morning pew sitters? How
do we get them involved?
We call it so many things. Sunday school, small group,
circle or bible study. We gather for dinners and lunches and speakers and
outreach. We host sports activities and choir for the children, for the youth and
for adults. We offer so many opportunities at so many times. Still, they never
come.
They are people content to sit on the sidelines of
faith, never getting too deep or too involved. How do we explain to them what
they are missing? How do we encourage them to partake of the fellowship, the
laughter, the prayers and support that is so freely offered?
What are they afraid they’ll find? Are they afraid of
conviction for things they don’t want to give up. Maybe they aren’t as sure of
their faith as they claim. Maybe they don’t want to question themselves,
preferring to slide through life without examining who they are in Christ.
Or maybe it’s something else. Maybe they are afraid of
a past they prefer to keep hidden. Maybe they’re beyond certain they’ll be
judged in some way. Maybe it’s just easier to pretend they are the people they want
to be rather than accepting God’s grace and actually being the people He created
them to be.
I could throw out all those trite phrases. We are all
sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God. We are not to judge others but
rather to extend the grace that’s been extended to us. We are to help one
another and support one another through joy and sorrow, happiness and disappointment.
And most of the time we do. I’m sure there are
churches who don’t extend Christ’s hand with a clean heart and open arms. That’s
not the case with our church. I don’t think it’s true of most churches. We are
all flawed people trying to navigate a world to which we don’t belong.
Doing it together is what makes it possible. It’s the
real, practical help that comes with a grocery store gift card or a ride to a
doctor appointment. It is the prayers that surround us when our hearts are
broken. It’s the celebratory cake and shared meals, the laughter and joy that
comes from doing life together.
That’s what people miss when they only come on Sunday
morning to occupy a pew or a chair. They say all the right things. They have smiles
and excuses ready when invitations come. They don’t want to be part of a
community of believers. At least until their world falls apart and they have
nowhere else to turn.
There are no perfect churches and no perfect people.
We are a community, a family, who loves and squabbles their way through it all.
If you haven’t joined a small group, take a chance and step forward in faith.
You’ll be amazed at what you find.
