Monday, August 29, 2005

Alone In A Crowd

Have you ever felt alone in a crowded Church service? I have, many times I have slipped in and out of church, sitting unnoticed in the back pew, never greeted by anyone, never prayed for by anyone, never praying for anyone myself. It is possible to be alone in a crowd, just go to a ball game or the mall - you are surrounded by hundreds or maybe thousands but you are a stranger to them all, and it happens in church every Sunday.

The question I have is how do we get involved in our brother's & sister's journey of faith? How do we interact with each other in such a way as to have an impact upon our lives, so that we are transformed each time we gather? How do we avoid being a solo act in a crowd? How do we capture the understanding of first century "ekklesia" and carry it out in our daily walk of faith? How do we develop a strong community of brothers and sisters that extends beyond the four walls of the "church" to fill up the rest of the week, not isolated until next Sunday?

I know, too many questions. But we need to start finding solutions to the isolation and it is in the understanding of "ekklesia" that we learn we are more than a group that meets in a building one or two days a week. We need to understand what we are called out from and what we are called to be - the visible earthly representation of Christ, his body, his dwelling place.

"...oikos theos hostis esti ekklesia zao theos..."

"...the house of God, which is an assembly of the living God..."
(1 Timothy 3:15 - Young's Literal Translation)

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)

2 comments:

Bill Heroman said...

Amen, Amen!! So what are you trying, these days, yourself?

Dying to know... -Bill

Anonymous said...

After several times of visiting different Churches and walking out not being noticed, We soon began to realize that we needed answers and fast. We had smaller children being raised at the ole homestead.

Although we are not Amish, We all live on the ole Homestead. We believe it is extremely important to live what we believe and recently, The Lord confirmed that we had found some answers, When two teenagers and a young mother came to me and asked why when people go into the Churches does it seem so hard to become a christina, but you have showed us how to not only desire the Lord, Ask him into our hearts, But also to live for him.
We truely believe that God is showing us it is time to get back to the basic ways of his calling and not stray away.
I did read what you had wrote and I truely understand what you have wrote.
I could add to this by saying how I was in the hospital with MRSA and we didn't have money to travel back and forth so my husband stayed at the hospital with me while I was in ICU. The preacher was called and he said he would come up their. Nobody came or called to this day and it was two years ago. My children called a member of the church to see if they could bring a sandwich to the hospital for their dad because he had not ate in three days. He said yes he would and a few days later he told my son, that his wife didn't want him to leave because her parents stopped in. They lived down the road from them and seen them daily. A nurse from the hospital finally brought him some food. God did provide but not through those members of the church we had been going to, but through the means of prayer for help. They knew they couldn't get the food to him, they used all their gas up running back and forth that week. Anyways, What is wrong with the Churches? The Churches have been robbed by the silent one and only one can deliver it from the robbers hands. CHRIST.