Everywhere Church

 "Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."  --Hebrews 10:25

In Hebrews 10:25 Paul reminds Christians to not neglect meeting together.  It's not because going to church is a requirement for one's salvation, but instead it is meant to be a place where we encourage one another to "keep the faith," that is, to keep trusting God for all our needs.

It's lovely to meet to worship God collectively and to engage socially with other Christians, but that is not what we are called to do.  We are called to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ!  As His disciples we are to be light and salt in the world.

With the restrictions put on us because of this world-wide pandemic you may be feeling you can't do this.  But I think these restrictions have helped to delineate the difference between going to church and being the church.  Jesus called His followers The Church.  The pandemic has not prevented us from being The Church.  Roger Thoman, who writes SimpleChurch Journal, for the purpose of promoting house church where people meet in homes rather than buildings, recently coined the phrase Everywhere Church.  He writes: 

We continue to divide up life in our thinking between sacred/holy and non-sacred/non-holy.  And, our time spent in a church location or service or gathering (even a house church gathering) is seen as somehow more sacred than our time spent outside of that place, service, or gather.

This false, dichotomous way of thinking robs us of our everyday identity as God's Spirit-filled people and it diminishes our true purpose as light and salt in a world that desperately needs both.

What we need to remember is that every encounter with another person..... whether it be with a store clerk, passers-by on the street, on social media, with the people we live with.... every encounter is "going to church" because we ARE the church everywhere we go.  For a Christian there is no such thing as secular.  Everything is a holy encounter because the presence of God is in us, willing us to do His will.

Father, thank you for this reminder that we are One because of what Jesus did for me.  May my awareness of this not be obscured by the cares of the world or my own self-centeredness.

 

Link to scripture:  1 Peter 2:15

Take Action:  How to live in God and He in you