Lent day 25

good evening...

most of us have an idea what the Church is...

with a big C...

but what about the church...

with a little c...

the local and visible expression of the global and invisible reality...

what makes a church a church???

authentically???

i spent last night and all day today with my friends at trinity EPC in ft pierce trying to answer that question...

not for the whole world...

just for them...

as a spiritual family...

what does it take for them to be a true church...

a "successful" church...

we tried to approach this question from the "gut"...

not just the brain...

we prayed...

and prayed...

really prayed...

we craved a word from the Lord...

we needed to hear from god...

we did!!!

here's what we heard together as we listened...

as brian would say, the ecclesial minimum is clear...

for trinity to be a church, three realities must be present...

WORSHIP...

lifting up jesus...

in many and varied ways...

the sacraments...

the word...

music...

lifestyle...

our whole being worshiping jesus!

it may be a boombox, not a praise band...

at least for now...

but with hearts overflowing with praise and worship...

COMMUNITY...

the core group of about 12 at trinity...

really loves each other...

in the words of acts, they "strengthen and encourage" one another...

they have a passion for doing life together...

and what is even better...

they have identified this sense of "belonging" as one of their gifts as a body...

AND they want to give this gift away to others who are lonely and rejected...

to those feeling they do not belong...

the spiritually homeless...

MISSION [service]...

trinity got honest...

"this is where we are missing it!"

true confession is the key to change...

and moving forward with god...

WE WILL MISS MISSION NO MORE!!!

they purposed to each one be more missional as christ followers...

in their personal lives...

AND...

to open their hearts to pursue a god-given mission TOGETHER...

since i was the youngest person in the room, they decided to focus on the elderly...

it is who we are...

so let's make it a blessing...

focus on widows and widowers...

especially those in nursing homes...

the lonely...

the abandoned...

the forsaken...

"what if we did sunday worship at a local nursing home and included the patients???"

we could hold their hand...

we could visit with them...

we could invite their families to all worship with us...

we could pass on our gift of love, belonging and community to them...

we could serve them in jesus' name...

success would be measured by faithfulness, not just numbers...

faithfulness to...

worship jesus...

share community...

pursue mission...

doing so with the right heart will bring fruit...

spiritual growth...

and numerical growth...

if the people can't come to us, let's go to them...

i feel good...

time well invested...

thank you god...

i am so proud of my friends at trinity!

well, time to get a sermon together for the a.m.

and, i am already losing an hour tonight...

enjoy the 4th sunday of lent tomorrow...

blessings!

guy

the sunset was so beautiful here tonight down the atlantic inlet looking west...