Connection: God Carefully Joins the Church Together
Connection - Everything we do in this church is Biblical, and we base everything we do in the foundation of truth in the Scriptures. We adhere to the first church as much as possible, emulating the book of Acts, while remaining culturally relevant to the age we are in. Therefore, the Bible is our bottom line, and we operate within the confines of what the Scripture teaches us to keep us aligned with the heart of God. Our vision in everything is to build the Kingdom the God through connection to God, each other and the world around us.
I Corinthians 3:16: “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” The church has nothing to do with buildings. Buildings are means to an end. The church is people - a group of people joined together.
Ephesians 2:20: “We are His house built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. The cornerstone is Christ.” The foundation of our church is Christ. He is the chief visionary officer of this church. “We who believe are carefully joined together becoming a holy temple for the Lord.”
The church is not Dean and Jill’s church. It is not based on anyone’s gift. We are not joined to a church because of the leaders, we are joined to Christ. It is built on the foundation of Christ. Jill and I provide the macro vision for the church, and we raise up leaders to manage departments and needs in the church in areas that play to their skill sets. We are all about teams here. We want to bring out the best in people. The church is a group of people carefully put together, not a group of people following a “man of God.” We are all joined together following Christ and allowing Him to fulfill God’s vision through us.
Cycling is a great example of the church. You cannot finish a long race on your own - your individual strength is not enough. When you connect to a group and fall into line, you share strength and can go farther and faster than you could on your own. When you are at the back of the pack, you get to rest and depend on the strength of the group to pull you through. When you are at the front, you face the most resistance and lead the rest for a time. But everyone has a turn at the front and at the back, and everyone works together for the same goal. This is an amazing analogy of the church.
Sometimes we just don’t want to connect to others. We have an internal aversion to connection and we just want to do things alone. We let our pride convince us that we don’t need or want anyone else in our lives. We think that we don’t need other people for our walk with God. We have an innate resistance to being part of a team. But the Bible says “If one can put a thousand, then two can put two thousand to flight.” At the last supper, Jesus asked the disciples to eat together, be together and stay together in remembrance of Him. He wants us to connect with others in the church and, when we do, He will be in the midst of it.
For many years in the early church there weren’t even church buildings. Churches met in homes, in small groups. We, in this age are used to the structures and buildings of the modern church, and sometimes become out of touch with what the church is about. Man has become more independent, and many think that all the problems of the world can be solved through the ingenuity of man. We think we have the answers to everything. We do, but only when we are connected to God and others. This is such a foundational revelation that we all need to have about the nature of the church and our walk with Christ. As we connect to Christ, we connect to other people.
Paul says that we are the family of God. We have been adopted in and we are God’s family. There are expressions of God’s family all over the world. We believe in the church tribe philosophy, like the twelve tribes of Israel. There were twelve tribes in the church - different vibes, one God. Different tribes are right for different people, but we all love God. Find your tribe and connect to it. Get beyond your pride. Lay down your own agenda. God wants to connect us and join us together. God doesn’t want us stranded on our hundred mile race by ourselves, killing ourselves trying to finish our own. Find your team and do life together. Be discipled and challenged. We are building the temple together.
Sometimes you will be weak, but in your weakness others around you are strong and are there to help you through. When you are strong, you can help others around you. In a team, when one is weak, the strength of the others make them strong. You can’t do life by yourself. God didn’t intend for you to be alone. He joined us together so that we have a core strength to support each other. That is the Kingdom.
