Getting Connected

This weekend saw us host yet another ‘Getting Connected’ event at Kings. Basically this is an event for those who enjoy coming to Kings and are now thinking of moving on to get involved and become part of the church family. I just love these weekends because it gives me yet another chance to get excited about God’s great plans for the church! Basically I paint a picture of what I believe the Bible teaches about the local church, what it should look like, how it is God’s instrument in the world, and how vital it is for every Christian to take that step & find their place.
You see, the church really matters – and so does the connection and contribution of every individual Christian. Why? Because it’s God’s Plan A – and there’s no Plan B!
Michael Eaton puts it like this: ’The Kingdom – the royal activity of God uses the church as it’s channel of influence out into the world… it means that God’s way of reaching people & extending the Kingdom’s influence is through using the church… the life of God becomes visible in us.’

This weekend has also been dominated by the awful scenes of sheer terror in Mumbai. As I write, just short of 200 people have died in the atrocities and a whole city terrorised. And that’s not the only story in the news lately that make one deeply concerned about the state of our world. Whether it’s violence in a major city that fills our TV screens, or domestic violence hidden away behind closed doors, it acts as a stark reminder that the human condition is very sick indeed and is in need of the transformation that only Jesus can bring about in the human heart. And it is the church that has been entrusted with this Gospel, to speak it & live it.

That’s why it is so important the church, your local church and mine, functions the way God planned it to, with everyone playing their rightful part. In his excellent book Courageous Leadership, Bill Hybels writes: There is nothing like the local church when it’s working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power breathtaking. Its potential unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused. It provides resources for those in need and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned. It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the oppressed, and offers belonging to the marginalized of this world. Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness.

This is what we have been called to give our lives to – and it is so worth it! So go on; Get Connected!

Goff