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Christian Leaders ask yourselves what is church really about?

 

What is church really about?

This last week I have been talking to a young church leader about their church and how they are coming out of the lock-down and isolation, which we here in the UK have experienced. 

He explained to me that they had kept close contact with all their congregants via online connect groups, video chats and other social media platforms. He was encouraged that over 98% of his congregation had stayed in close contact with each other. He then went on to show me a series of well produced and presented video ads, that the leadership team had produced and put up on various social media sites, to encourage people back to church.

As I watched I became acutely aware that there was something missing. The ads themselves were fine. What I felt was not in what they were saying but in what they were not saying. The ads were telling Christians to come back to church, to come meet their friends face to face. To come and enjoy all the new programmes that had been devised and produced during lock down. The ads were telling Christians to come and get involved and participate or to become volunteers in one or more departments of the church. There were ads from the worship leader, the kid's church leader, the men's group leader and the woman's group leader, in fact there were ads from every department head and church leader in the church. The social media sites of congregants and followers were bombarded throughout the day and week in this well executed media blitz.

While I think it is a good thing that the leaders of this church should be concerned about the spiritual well being of their congregations. In all the rhetoric that came from these ads, there was not one mention of the lost, those oppressed, the lonely, and the sick. Nor was there any mention of those that were in need.

The church is a green pasture for sheep to graze and be filled. The church is also a Hospital for the sick, it is a care home for the lonely. It is a social hub that endeavours to be in tune with the pulse of the community that surrounds it. The church is a light to those that are in darkness.

So in the rush to get back to a fellowship do not forget those that Christ has not forgotten, because therein lays the the true purpose of the church..

 

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