Soup’s on!
In today’s society, it appears that different beliefs and different faiths segregate our communities. Each church family ministers to those within their walls and often forget that across town, there is another church like it, doing the very same thing. It is amazing the ministries that grow out of each church, and the lives that are being changed, but even so, we never seem to reach out and take the hand of our sister churches and become united city wide.
We don’t involve ourselves in getting to know what is happening, or be aware of how many lives are being affected, or even what needs our local pastor and his congregation may be in need of. If we did know, what would we do about it?
I don’t know what you or your church would do about it, but this past weekend, I firsthand saw what we SHOULD do about it.
Just a few weeks ago, my husband and I became the new senior pastors of a church in a little town. Since we are new in town, we had no idea the unity that such a small town had.
This past Sunday, we had the honor and privilege of attending a luncheon at another local church. It did my heart good to not only meet alot of the community people but to see churches come together to bring encouragement to the congregation of one particular church. In the small fellowship hall, we met not one, but four or five pastors of different churches from town. We were all gathered in one place not to just share a bowl of soup but to share our unified hearts to encourage another pastor by financially blessing her church to have her roof repaired after a nasty storm came thru and tore it off.
Different faiths. Different congregations. But yet in one accord.
Sometimes I think we can get so bogged down with our rules and structure within our “organized” church that we become ineffective for Christ. We lose sight of the fact that it isn’t just about the impact we can make as we build up our churches. But even so, what a much more powerful impact we can have when we join hands with other churches and become unified to build His kingdom!
We should all be working for such unity as I experienced. After all, Jesus prayed that we would all be one…
“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” -Ephesians 4: 3-6
It doesn’t matter what the sign reads on the door of the church, because of the love of Jesus in each of us, we are drawn to each other with a common mission…
For the walls to fall, for independent spirits to be broken, for competitive spirits to be destroyed and for Satan to flee.
When our love for another is seen by the world, lost souls will flock to the doors of the church. Not just your church or my church…but to God’s church – THE church! It is my prayer that we will stand unified with our brothers and sisters so that we can make a difference in our communities.
When is the last time that you shared a bowl of soup with your church family from across town?
Wonderful post.
I love this! Our church regularly reaches out to – and connects with – other local churches. We host a marriage group that is 50% attended by couples from other churches. Our pastor meets with other local pastors to pray for our community. As you quoted, “there is ONE body…”
Thanks for sharing, Laurie!
Loved your post!!! So glad God has placed you and your family in our midst. It’s my prayer that God will bless your family as you bless our church family.
Powerful message, Laurie. I guess that is why I love the community here at Laced with Grace. We all attend different churches of different denominations, but we are of one Spirit; the Spirit of Jesus Christ.