So, I’m searching the internet to get a taste of what other churches are doing around the globe, and I stumbled on to this church called Gateway Community Church in Virginia who did something crazy last October.
They canceled services! But they canceled the services in order to serve. The whole church body got together that morning, not to sit in a worship service, but they rose to live out worship by serving in their community by doing labor for those in need in the surrounding neighberhoods! That is the church! I love it! Big props to these guys that understand that there is nothing like getting together with God’s family to worship – but that doesn’t mean in a building singing songs and listening to someone speak. The church isn’t a building, it’s a body. Christianity is not a part of my life, it is my life. I don’t attend worship, I breathe worship.
I pray that here at North Side we continue to love Sunday mornings together in our building. And I pray even more that as the “church” all week long, we get after it for Jesus’ sake. I pray that we go until we drop. Give until there is nothing left. Work like it all depends on us, and pray like it all depends on God. I just pray that we look back over our lives and say that we were a part of something great. That we lived for something that outlived us.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.