The Death of A Series

It’s always a bitter sweet week when we switch from one series to another. And that is this week. We just finished Sacred Rituals – an idea I stole from Mark Batterson at NCC – where we looked at our (Western Hills) rituals, the ones we think are crucial to the life of our church and transformative in the life of a believer.

Communion, worship, baptism, generosity, and last Sunday was community. A few nuggets I hope continues to transform us as we move forward…

We do the “rituals” because by doing them we are not only joining something larger than us but we are being changed by Him to look more like Him.

The problem with ‘community’ is so few of us know what it is or what it looks like INSIDE the church centered on Jesus. Part of the reason for this is that most churches don’t demand it but the biggest reason is because it’s risky, it comes with bumps and bruises and so many of us don’t want to get hurt. (Get back on the bike.)

There is no Christianity in the New Testament without community. It was not possible to follow Jesus and NOT be around a table in someone’s home somewhere.

The Church exploded because of the work of the Spirit in community, around the tables. Not programs, not personalities, not buildings, not great marketing. Love, Live, and Serve in community, around the table, in the home.

Do you have a place that you could run to in the middle of the night after breaking out of jail and they would pray with you? (See Peter’s story in Acts 12.) How much would that kind of community be worth to you? Two nights a month? Two hours a week?