If you’ve spent anytime in the church, than you’ve heard “faith without works is dead” probably a million times. So, what is our response? Usually to work! However, here’s the issue: most of our work has been defined by what we do inside the four walls of the local church, such as:
- Serve on a committee
- Help out with kids.
- Serve on the set-up & tear down team, etc!
We could go on and on and on. Now, serving the local church is a good thing. I love the local church. But, we’ve put so much energy in serving the local church, we’ve literally forgotten about those on the other-side-of-the-gate, those who live without God, those who suffer deeply, those who are in need.
Our faith will shine brightest, and our works will bear much fruit, when we go into the darkness and be-light and create beauty. The Church must be on display in the midst of the culture-and remember, you are the church!
So yes…serve the local church. But, don’t allow the local church to keep you away from loving and serving the people who are outside the local church-these are the people that need you the most…! They need to see the Kingdom on display, by your mixture of faith and works.
Also, as members of the local church, we should be doing this together as a whole. Another-words, “we” go out and serve people together as Christ’s church!
Great post man and so true. We do get so focused and caught up on what goes on inside our four walls that we forget about the broken hurting world outside. This is the place we would find Jesus. We need to get our hands dirty for Him.