Hello all,
Very quickly, here’s is what is going on at Agape this week: 1. Worship and Gathering Together begins Sunday at 10:00am with fellowship and breakfast, and then worship and a call to unity and pressing on from Philippians 3:20-4:3. 2. Sunday Night We have Genesis - a great time of fellowship and Bible discussion at our house at 6pm. All are invited!
And now, with the details out of the way, please allow me to urge you to read and ponder this short exhortation:
Dear friends,
I hope this letter finds you well! You might have noticed that I have used the word “together” a good bit lately in messages and in these newsletters, and there is a reason for that. The Hebrew word “synagogue”, which we normally take to refer to an Old Testament place of meeting, actually means “to gather, or assemble together”. Similarly, the Greek Word Ecclesia, which we usually translate as “church”, and also apply to a building, in fact means “an assembly of people” or “gathering together.” As I have been saying on Sunday mornings, we Christians have somehow found ourselves in a place where we consider “doing church” to mean that we come together for a two or three hour religious service with music and preaching. While worshipful, God-focused music and God glorifying preaching is indeed critical to the coming together of God’s people, a closer examination of the New Testament indicates that the church/Ecclesia is not just a religious gathering that happens once a week (and occasionally on Wednesdays), but is in fact a calling into God’s abundant life, shared together in trials and triumphs. It goes far beyond just coming to a religious service, and it should stretch far beyond Sunday morning!
Hebrews 10:25 is a passage that preachers often use to get people to “come to church”. It reads, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” The word there, translated as “meeting together” is essentially the word synagogue, and it is indeed a call to put first priority on the people of God gathering themselves together for the purposes of God, but it goes far beyond just a mandate to attend church! Again, the Body of Christ, is called together to much more than a “church service”. Look here at Ephesians 2: 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Did you see the double use of the word “together”? How about here, in Ephesians 3: “6This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”? Once again, the word together is used multiple times. Meditate here on the five occurrences of the word “together”, and you will see quite clearly that we are called to come together for more than just a meeting or two each week. We are being made, by Jesus, into a people, sharing life and the gospel together, with a mission to serve the world and bring them the Good News of Jesus. And we are called to do it all TOGETHER!
The above is one reason why all of our primary worship services on Sunday start with breakfast together. Not so we can eat - we do plenty of that - but so that we can go deeper into relationship with each other, in the hopes that it breaks out from the bounds of Sunday into Monday, Thursday, etc. That is also why we are moving away from Sunday school/small groups on Sunday mornings and towards home groups. Sunday school has had an incredible discipleship impact on the church in the last couple of centuries (the first Sunday school happened in the 1750s), and I do not disparage it in the least - it has been important for me, and for my children. Sunday school, however, is quite limited in its time constraints, and thus it limits our ability to know each other on a deeper level. Home groups do not share that limitation, which is why I believe the early church did not practice Sunday School on Sunday morning, but did it daily, in each other’s homes! (Acts: 5:42 “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”)
All of that to say, that we are compelled, by God and His Gospel, to go beyond being a place where religious services happen, to being a place where God Life Together happens. Going beyond in this way has necessitated some change, and I know change is not always very easy for many of us. Be encouraged that we are aiming for a Biblical and good place, and that the growing pains are worth it! Be encouraged that we are endeavoring not to conform to the current pattern of religion in America, but to be transformed by Jesus into the Body of Christ. Spend time in prayer over this, and pour over the New Testament, particularly the parts that concern the church - the Body of Christ. He is working among us, building us together into a dwelling place for His presence. Amen and Maranatha!
See you Sunday,
Chase
One other thing. I know very little Swahili (less than twenty words) so I don’t understand this song at all, but I am moved and stirred by it, and by the translation of the lyrics:
Hakeleje from the Soweto Gospel Choir)
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