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Sunday, January 17, 2016
Jeff Lampl
A Month of Spiritul Renewal
Why Membership?
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
"So then, you...are not foreigners or strangers any longer; you are now citizens together with God's people and members o the family of God."
Ephesians 2:19
For many years I was not quite sure how to explain to other Christians why it is so important to belong to a church. What if I don't really "get anything" out of the sermons? What if I just don't like to sing? Couldn't I meet God just as well in nature? If membership means that I can be on a committee and vote in church meetings, well, truth be told, why bother?
What I have discovered about membership, however, is profound and important beyond words. The real meaning of membership has nothing to do with membership rolls, dues, eligibility for office, or even my right to pastoral care. But it has everything to do with my heart and my willingness to grow up.
As there is a difference between marriage and living together, there is a difference between committing to local body of believers and simply being an attender. Just as it is marriage that holds a couple's love together (not the other way around), it is the local body of believers, the church, which provides the committed community that keeps our love of God enflamed and our love of people growing.
I have discovered that biblical community, being together on a regular basis with others who matter to me, who irritate me (but I learn to love anyway and who learn to love me in spite of myself), whom I let down and from whom I receive unmerited forgiveness, beside whom I worship, from whom I learn, by whom I am challenged . . . . all of this is God's means to grow me up into the person God wants me to become. I forces me out of a me-centered life.
This kind of growth happens only in committed relationship with other believers. It's does not happen without it.
A huge part of the purpose of this month of renewal is giving you the opportunity to renew your membership in a way that it means more to you than it ever has before. Please check out the membership renewal form
, read it over carefully and then decide whether or not you wish to renew your membership. I encourage you not to do so if the meaning of membership is something you are not ready for. You will still be loved, honored and welcomed into every aspect of our church life. However, I do encourage to take the leap. Jump in. Choose to dive into the body of Christ. It may be uncomfortable and inconvenient (what "marriage" isn't?), as it was for me, but you will be blessed as I have been.
"Lord I will read the covenant of membership and consider it carefully. Father give me the excitement of expecting a new kind of future, one of relationship with you, and of relationships with others, that can only be found in the communion of saints, the church body, other imperfect but loved believers like me. Amen"
For more: follow on Twitter @jefflampl
This is a regular communication from Christian Life Center.
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