One of the greatest privileges Christians enjoy is that of periodically gathering together with fellow believers in a building that we metaphorically call “Church.”
It is important to remember however that Christ’s church is not the same as the building where we “go” on Sundays. The Church is a living, breathing, spiritual (mystical) organism made up of individual believers who are invisibly held together by its head, Jesus Christ.
As noted in Colossians 1:17-19: “He (Jesus) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church …”
Therefore, wherever you go, the church goes — you ARE the church. Therefore, “church” is not “over” when we leave the building, get into our cars and go home. Strictly speaking, as outlined in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, Church won’t be “over” until Christ raptures all believers to Heaven in the last days.
So, if you bring “church” with you wherever you go, long after “Sunday go to meet’n” is over, long after the Sunday-best clothes are removed, how then should you live? Answer: The same as when you are IN the building.
Matthew 5:15-17 notes that you are walking out into your own private mission field, “Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
As a new believer, I dreamed of some great ministry to which I would be called. Meantime, right in front of me were countless opportunities to share my faith and exhibit the Holy Spirit’s transformational work in my life.
However, I was preoccupied with my fanciful vision of foreign mission fields. I was missing ministry opportunities that God had placed right in front of me at home, with my wife, my kids, our neighbors, people I encountered in stores, at work, with mechanics fixing my car, with plumbers unplugging my pipes, etc.
Ordinary people all around us are suffering through divorces, alcoholism, financial meltdowns, losing loved ones, developing life-threatening diseases, etc. They NEED Christ “with skin on him.” That’s us, Mr. or Mrs. Church!
Christian author J.R. Miller wrote: “A great many persons are always sighing for opportunities to minister to Christ, imagining some fine and splendid service which THEY would like to render. Meantime they let slip past their hands the very things in which Christ wants them to serve Him. True ministry to Christ is doing first of all, and well, one’s daily duties.”
What I didn’t understand until years later was that God wasn’t about to trust me with those “big things” in my dreams, if I hadn’t proven my faithfulness in carrying out the “little things” all around me in the here-and-now.
While it is always pleasant to gather together with fellow believers, the lost who need Christ are seldom to be found in your “building.” They are more likely to be found in the demon-possessed highways and byways of our broken world.
So, GO. Your mission field is all around you.
To illustrate, professional fishermen never fish in the safety and security of the harbor (your building). They know the fish are far out to sea, where the wind and waves present a constant danger and where the comforts of onshore life are set aside.
Jesus could have opted for the comfort of religious trappings, elite companions and safety of the temple, not exposing himself to trouble, but instead we read in Mark 2:15-17:
“… many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples … When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors … Jesus said to them, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”
Bible commentator Bill MacDonald wrote: “we should not shut ourselves up in (safe) Christianized communities. Rather we should seek to befriend the ungodly in order to introduce them to our Lord and Savior … it would be easier to isolate oneself from the wicked world, but Jesus didn’t do it, and neither should His followers.”
How About you?
Are you still standing on the shore watching others do the fishing? Are you still waiting for the skies to open, and the voice of God boom out your instructions? Don’t miss out on the joy of reaching out in faith right where you are, God can’t steer a parked car.
Of course gather on Sundays, especially now that the COVID-19 pandemic has largely passed, but then — as is written in Hebrews 10:24-26 — go out and let your light (the indwelling Holy Spirit) shine where you work, shop, have coffee, etc.
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information, or contact him at don@peervalue.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.