If you printed all of the clichés about church and being a Christian you could probably wallpaper St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. There are thousands…see if you have heard or read any of these:
“You maybe the only Bible someone reads”
“God’s only hands and feet are you”
“What would Jesus do?”
In each saying there is deep theological truth, but we often give these clichés or slogans little more than lip service. What would happen if we started making them reality?
As children of God we are called to go into the world and to make disciples of all nations. We are not called to preach to only the people we see in our church building on a Sunday morning. We were commissioned – by God – to go out into the world and seek out the lost, the hurt, the lonely and the unloved.
With this mission from God in mind we begin to understand that true “church” isn’t what happens on Sunday morning. True church is what happens between Sundays. When we leave the building – the place we consider holy – we go out into the world – into the mission field as God’s emissaries. We are the church on two legs.
Every where we go, we go as the church. To everyone we meet, we are the church.
So often we get caught up with what happens between nine and eleven on Sunday morning that we forget true church – truly being the Body of Christ – doesn’t have a time frame and it isn’t confined to a single place.
When our worship service is completed on Sunday mornings, the acolytes extinguish the candles at the altar and they carry them out of the sanctuary. This is a symbolic action of what we are called to do. We are called to carry the light of God from the church building and take it out into the world.
The next time you meet someone new or even when you are hanging out with a friend, ask yourself if you are treating that person with the care and love you would give to him or to her if they had entered the sanctuary of your church on Sunday morning. As a Christian, you are called to be so much more than simply a good person; you are called to be the church – the Church on Two Legs – meeting the hurting people of this world with the love and compassion God has already shown to each of us.
Scripture
Quote of the Day
"Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart"
— Bob Pierce, World Vision founder
Question of the Day
How can you "be the church" today?
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