We Are ALL in this together!

My lifegroup recently had a super fun night at our local county fair. We laughed, ate fried food, and watched our kids full of wonder and excitement as they rode rides and saw all the sights. I am so blessed to have these people in my life. We pray for each other. We build each other up. We share each others' pain, and rejoice in one another's joys. We help each other whenever we can. We have worked on cars, houses, helped each other move, cleaned homes, painted, and watched kids. We have shared too many meals to count, watched fire works, shared stories and songs around a fire, and just enjoyed doing life together. We are not perfect, but we are intentionally trying to grow closer to God by surrounding ourselves with people who are like minded and love God.

We all attend church in the same building, but way more important than that is that no matter where we end up in life... We are the Church. You see, all Christians are part of the capital "C" Church. We are all in this together. It doesn't matter where we live, if we sing hymns or rock out, regardless of our denomination we all have the same goal. That goal should be to reach people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. 

So...I was a bit confused and sad when I read the literature from another place of worship that was passing out info at the fair. I will not name this church, nor do I want anyone to comment with their name...because well...read above! LOL - However, it seemed as if this particular place of worship was a bit confused about who the enemy was. Their literature seemed to criticize another church in the community, or potentially several, that chose to worship and present the gospel a little differently. The devil is the enemy. Christian churches are on the same team, with the same mission. This is not a competition against other believers. I have a hard time believing that a conversation in Heaven would go as follows... "Hey, so I see here that you were part of a church that helped millions of people find God. That is great, but your music was too loud and your message was too culturally relevant...so those people weren't really saved." Yeah, sounds a little crazy, huh? I also don't think this would happen. "You faithfully served in a small church for years. You sang hymns in a small country church and only a few hundred were saved in your time there...so your devotion to God and the church meant nothing." That would never happen. We are all called to this mission. We might be called to missions across the world. We might be called to start a new church, or minister to struggling families. Maybe you are supposed to lead a motorcycle ministry, or start a lifegroup to help grandparents raising kids. Maybe you are supposed to offer to take neighborhood kids to Wednesday night. I don't know! It doesn't look the same for every Christian because we are a diverse world. It takes all kinds of people who have a heart to serve with love and devotion to reach the world. People are different, and they might just need different methods and paths to find Jesus. Once they get there, the message of God's love, forgiveness and grace should be the same truth no matter where it is being spoken. If someone joins me at my church and finds God, AMAZING! Praise GOD! If someone chooses a different church, and finds God there, I am just as happy, and the kingdom rejoices just the same! I hope that we all seek out what God is calling us to, and run after it with all our hearts and with reckless abandon.

I believe that when churches become competitive against one another the true enemy just laughs and smiles. Let's not lose focus people. We are all in this together!

1 Corinthians 1:10 "I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose."