On a Mission from God - Part 2
Tonight I'm continuing a mini-blog series to help refresh, renew, and refocus our church on a clear sense of mission. Each post will be short and sweet, and focused on our mission and vision moving forward. Here's the second one…
Following Jesus was never something we were meant to do alone.
You may not realize it (or maybe you do), but we live in possibly the most individualistic culture in world history. America is a nation hyper-focused on individual liberty, individual rights, and the individual pursuit of happiness.
I’m not saying this is bad. Inherently, these are not bad things!
But the individualistic mindset can seep so deeply into our hearts that it warps our understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.
Our faith can become something that revolves almost entirely around our individual spiritual lives — personal Bible reading, personal prayer, personal worship, personal convictions, personal doctrine, personal calling, personal you-name-it. . .
And we can lose grasp of the fact that we are, in fact, part of a larger body.
Jesus said “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
One of the clear implications of this imagery is that abiding in Christ and being fruitful involve being close to the other branches, too -- not just Jesus alone!
Paul wrote that we are one body in Christ and members of one another (Romans 12:5). In 1 Corinthians 12 he explained how our various forms of Spirit-filled service interweave and are dependent upon one another.
We could go to many other passages, but the bottom line is this: We are called to follow Jesus with other believers.
We are called, as a church, to follow Jesus together.
As we draw nearer to meeting face-to-face again, let us meditate on that.
At Colomokee, we are following Jesus TOGETHER.
Pastor Josh