The Body of Christ

Romans 12:4-5 - For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

1 Corinthians 12:18 - But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

One of the tough things I’m learning about in full time ministry is the complete lack of unity that exists between churches in the body of Christ. Let me explain.

Family Church is just over 1 year old now. We are meeting in a middle school on Sunday mornings and are planning on launching our youth church January 17^th. One problem that we’re running into is finding a facility to meet in. We’ve asked all around and there seems to be nothing but closed doors.

The biggest disappointment in all this is the response that I get from other local churches here in town. I probably asked 12 larger churches in town if we could rent out their facility at any time during the week for our youth services. Not a single church was open to helping us get our youth ministry started. Most churches took a message and never called back. Others said they were just too bust to deal with anything like that. A couple highlights included the Lutheran pastor telling me they only help other Lutherans and another pastor telling me they would never have drums and guitars for worship in their building.

Here’s some good questions for us all – Who’s kingdom are we building anyway? Is the ministry all about us and the way we do things? Do we believe that we’re the only church that God wants to use to touch our city? Can we honestly care for every soul in our city or could we use some help from other churches?

Imagine if your left hand got caught under a heavy object but your right hand refused to lift the object off. Or if you were about to get a haircut (which was going to make your head look a whole lot better) but your legs refused (our of jealousy) to cooperate and did everything they could to resist getting in that chair.

These images well describe the condition of the Body of Christ. I’m asking God to brand into my heart and spirit Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17:11. Don’t forget that we need every bible believing, Jesus preaching church in the city to reach all the unsaved. There has never been a shortage of souls to win. I can understand having differences in doctrines and philosophies – but I’m determined at every chance I get to

consider one another in order to stir up love and good works

We have a responsibility to help each other and encourage one another in our pursuit of the call of God. The Body of Christ is not to be in competition with one another – but rather partnership. May God continue to conform His bride in the spotless one He’s returning for.

So here’s the big prayer request in light of our need for a building to meet in. We’re in communication with a movie theatre here in town that shows movies for $2. They supposed to be coming up with a proposal to rent out one of their theatres one night a week for our youth service. This would be a fantastic location – it’s right off the freeway, everyone knows where it is, and it’s a great place to invite youth to come to. We know there are students that won’t step foot in a church but might come check out what’s going on in a movie theatre.

Here’s some pictures of the place.

Pray with us that God would grant us favor with the corporation and that we would be able to work out an agreement with them to rent their facility. Our kickoff is coming up soon!!!

Question of the Week:

What was the last good partnership experience you had with someone from another church or stream of churches than your own?

Christmas Youth Party

Apparently my role on this blog is to post all the pictures and let you all know what is happening in our lives since Danny took the role of doctrine debater and asker of many questions. =)
Last night we had our youth Christmas party which was a murder mystery party where we had to discover who had killed Santa. Everyone got a character to play, except Danny, he was the host. We never got a final count but there was somewhere between 60-70 people crammed in our house. It was a blast! I, of course, was Mrs. Claus. Here are a few others that some of you may recognize:

Kailee, as the softball player with a few youth.

Trina, the motorcycle salesman. Lorelei, the businesswoman/mother. A couple youth girls.

Trent, the DJ and aspiring rap artist. Trevin, his agent. (At least I think that is what they were supposed to be!)

Trey, the ladies' man and a few of our youth.

Trent, Trevin, and Travis, the businessman. You guessed it, another youth.

Anyhow, the latest news is that we may possibly have an open door for a place to meet with the youth ministry. We are waiting to hear back from a Movie theatre that may rent us one of their theatres on Wednesday nights. Both Danny and I feel really good about this location in prayer so we are praying for a postive report come next week when the manager calls us back. Right now we are working on all the finishing details before we launch weekly meetings next month.
Happy Holidays!