Category: Ephesians

  • Unity and Diversity – One in Christ

    Bird collage

    I sat out on the back patio yesterday evening, preparing to barbecue supper. I had my Merlin app tracking the birds. It captured calls from 21 different species. That’s a lot of diversity for a small yard.

    God likes diversity; it displays his creative power and love of beauty. The other evening, the sky was blue, grey, black, pink, yellow, purple, and more, depending on where you looked. White light refracts into eight colors. Who can count the species of plants, insects, birds and animals, or the stars in the sky?

    He has given us different cultures, different personalities, and different spiritual gifts.

    I love what I call “Holy-tonk” music. That is old hymns done with a rocking country beat. It hurts the ears of others. The same can be said about literature, fashion, the cars we drive and more.

    Yet believers are unified in the Spirit. 

    Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Ephesians 4:1-7

    Distinct and different. Diversity and unity in a profound way.

    We don’t have to look the same or worship the same way. We can have personal preferences and differences.

    What a blessing. How boring it would be if we were all identical little Christian robots.

    He has given us diversity so that we can learn to love others who are different from ourselves, to minister to those in different places, and to encourage us in a diversity of spirit united practices.

    The next time someone walks through the doors of your local assembly who is different in some way, don’t tut-tut. Celebrate the wonder and creativity of the Living God.

    Be blessed
    Kevin

    Joy – Only Christians can have it
    Every Member Is Necessary — 1 Corinthians 12
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  • Happy Anniversary Church – What is our future?

    A styled image of a church with the text Immanuel's 40th Anniversary - our lccal church is celebrating

    This weekend, our local assembly is celebrating its fortieth anniversary.  That’s both a huge milestone and a stepping stone for our little church. 

    Statistically, over 80% of new church plants last less than five years, so this one has done very well. Depending on which source you look at, churches that make it past the first 5 years last somewhere between 75 and 100+ years. There’s lots of time to go yet.

    Like most congregations, this one has ebbed and waned over the years. It’s presently undergoing significant change, with a much larger multicultural makeup reflecting our community as a whole. That’s a good thing.

    I’ve often spoken of the need for unity in the church, and an area that doesn’t often get touched on are cultural differences between what differing communities think of as “church.” I’m excited to see what we will look like at our 45th and 50thanniversaries,

    Will the music change? The service format? What about the ministries we are involved in? It’s likely. The question is by how much. Will we even recognize the church?

    Will you move as the Spirit leads, or will we fight change it tooth and nail because it isn’t the way we think church should be done?  Probably some combination of both.

    We can forget that it is never “our church”. The church in all its forms belongs to God. His pleasure is to use the church (both as the body of believers and the organizations therein) to fulfill His goal, of seeing all who will be saved come to Him, and as a training ground for believers to be shaped into His image.

    And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  Matthew 16:18

    And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.  Ephesians 1:22-23

    He is preparing His bride (the church) to present to the Father and will shape her as He wills.

    That’s great news for us. We don’t have to fret about change. We are free to simply follow the Lord as He leads and walk by faith.

    I don’t know what the next 40 years hold for Immanuel: growth, decline, or even demise.  I do know I needed worry. I can celebrate what God has done, is doing, and will do.

    That’s a good place to be.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

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    Every Member Is Necessary — 1 Corinthians 12

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