What does it mean to be the Church - Waterville Lutheran 9/27/09

What does it mean to be the Church?

Key Point: The Church can be defined as: A building - when asked what church you go to people are asking where you go to church. This is not a Biblical understanding of the church - but it is the definition that has evolved over time. We have become a people defined by our space, our buildings, and in some respects have limited ourselves by being only a building. A people - The word church comes from the root word ekklesia in Greek meaning "the called out ones, the assembly". Here the Bible defines the church as people. Romans 16:5 says “… greet the church that is in their house.” Paul refers to the church in their house—not a church building, but a body of believers. The body of Christ - Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” The body of Christ is made up of all believers in Jesus Christ from the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2) until Christ’s return. The place for Word and Sacrament - "The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered." Augsburg Confession.

Ole and Sven went fishing one summer and decided to rent a boat from the resort instead of fishing from the shore. They rowed out a ways and started to fish. They caught one fish after the other. Ole says to Sven, "I wish we could mark this spot. It's the best fishing I've seen since I was a boy." Sven replied, "I got some chalk in my tackle box, so why don't I put an X right here on the bottom of the boat?" Ole laughed, "You goofy brother of mine...What if we don't rent the same boat next time."

Sometimes we wish that we could mark the spot and return to those days when attendance was high, Sunday school children were filling the basement, and our budget was within reach. We want to stay in the comfort of knowing that things were going to be "just fine". But this another summer - and perhaps like Ole and Swen we have to figure out how to find the best fishing spot - for catching the hearts of those hungering and thirsting for the Gospel in our own backyard.

Applying the Scripture to Daily Life
Three Steps Toward Obtaining New Life as a Church

1. Be a church that listens to what God asks of us.
1. does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
2. We can be a church that makes a real difference when we listen to the needs of our neighbors, evaluating the changes around us, and when we wait quietly on the Lord as His Holy Spirit directs and guides us.

3. After the service a young couple talked to a church member about joining the church. He hadn't met the husband before, and he asked what church he was transferring from.

   After a short hesitation, he replied,"I am transferring from the Municipal Golf Course."

4. People are drawn to congregations that are actively pursuing justice, kindness, and walking humbly with God. It is evident in what we do in this place. This congregation has been a place of mission, a family embracing each other in good and in ill.
   
5. What is God asking of us in the future?
   
2. Be open to the direction and invitation of scripture.
1. It is nothing magical in the formula given in Acts chapter 2. We can own that same model and reality in our own situation.
   
2. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
3. Fellowship, worship, teaching, and awe came upon them.
   
4. The importance of gathering around Word and Sacrament.
5. 4All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
6. How can we live out the calling to hold things in common and distribute as need arises?
3. Embrace the power we have in the Great Commission.
1. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What a man does for himself, dies with him; what he does for his community, lives long after he is gone."

Theodore Roosevelt