A week with the church
Last Saturday evening – just over a week ago – we had snow and ice in our area. In order to err on the side of safety, we cancelled our weekly Sunday meeting. So, does that mean that we did not meet with the church last week? Hardly!
A few times before I’ve posted about our meetings with the church during the week. For previous examples see “Church meetings” and “A week in the life of the church“.
Sunday: Although we didn’t have our formal weekly meeting, we invited some good friends to come to our house for lunch. We had a great time eating and talking with them, and hearing what God had been doing in their lives lately.
Tuesday: Margaret and Jeremy (my wife and son) attended a Bible study with several friends. They had a great time studying John the Baptist from the Gospel of Luke. It was a great parallel to our current study in Matthew.
Thursday: A young couple who is planning to get married came to our house for dinner. After dinner – a wonderful potato soup which Margaret cooked for the first time – we talked about marriage and discipleship for the most part. These are new friends, and we have enjoyed getting to know them over the last few months.
Friday: We went to dinner with another couple who are good friends. We enjoy doing things with our children, but it was good to have some time with other adults. Again, we had a great discussion about marriage and discipleship.
Saturday: Several friends came to our house. In particular, a young lady that we have not seen in a couple of years was in town, so she joined us. We were able to hear what God had been doing in her life during that time. It was great to again eat, talk, and laugh with some new friends and some new friends.
Sunday: This morning, we had our weekly meeting. We’ve been studying Matthew, and today we looked at Jesus’ baptism. The young lady who came to our house Saturday night also spoke to the group to tell them about what had been going on in her life. After the meeting, we went to the home of some friends to celebrate the third birthday of their daughter. We’re looking forward to praying with many of our friends tonight.
This times of gathering with the church do not count the times that we speak to one another briefly in grocery stores or on the phone. It also doesn’t include the times that Margaret and the children spend at Tae-Kwon-Do with some of our good friends.
God has blessed us with great brothers and sisters in Christ. We enjoy getting together in both formal and informal gatherings to help one another grown in Christ as we have a good time together.
I don’t share this to put our family or our friends on a pedestal. Instead, I hope that the work that God is doing in our lives – especially in drawing us together as a community in Christ – will encourage others to seek relationships with other believers and to share their lives – not just a couple of hours on Sunday – with them.
Alan
I think there are a lot of Christians that have the idea that church is only a Sunday activity. I know some of the best times of fellowship I have enjoyed have been away from the church building getting to know folks in a more “real life” setting. I was encouraged by the post.
Alan,
I think it is great that your church was uplifted throughout the week in so many ways. It is wonderful to see what God does in other churches. I pray that God will continue to bless your ministry. Thank you for sharing this post with us all so we can experience your church life. It is very encouraging to us.
I pray you have have a blessed week!
I’ve been challenged by reading many of your posts and others to put more effort into developing “community” within our fellowship group. We are a small Messianic home fellowship. The greatest challenge we face in developing the sense of “community” that I get from your posts is the actual physical distance between us. We live out in the country and the home where we’ve been meeting is a 43 mile drive away from us. Every other person in our fellowship has a similar drive to get there. When we are together, we spend the whole day in worship, sharing a meal, and study of the Word. It would be nice to be more involved in one another’s lives, but how do we accomplish that with the distance between us which makes spending time together difficult? I also work fulltime on a night shift, 11 pm til 7 am, so my schedule doesn’t line up with anyone else’s; I’m sleeping when others are available for fellowship. The daily interactions between those in your church sounds great. We just haven’t figured out how to achieve that in our situation. Another difficulty is the cost of commuting or phoning one another. Any ideas? This is something I’ll be bringing up at our next Sabbath fellowship, cause it is important. Take care and may the grace of our Lord Yeshua/Jesus the Messiah be with you!
Love in our Messiah,
Cindy in Wisconsin
Alan,
That’s certainly my idea of “church”.
Joe,
We don’t have a church building, though we do rent a reception hall on Sundays. We often encourage people to spend time with one another on other days in order to help build community among the church. I’m glad that you were encouraged!
Kinney (preacherman),
Thank for the encouragement and the prayer for blessing! I certainly need God’s blessing. I hope these types of posts encourage many others to share their lives with other believers.
Cindy,
You’re certainly in a difficult situation. Perhaps, as you are building relationship with those who are part of your fellowship group, God may also bring believers into your life who live closer to you. This doesn’t mean that you have to forsake the fellowship group in order to build community with others. You may even find that the two complement one another.
Aussie John,
Thanks for the encouragement! I thank God for the believing friends that he has brought into our lives!
-Alan