If you went to the homepage of the church website, you’ll see these words being highlighted, “A Whole-Life Disciple Making Church – Doing Life Together”. What do we mean by ‘whole-life discipleship’? In a nutshell, it means the following:
· Every area of our lives matters to God
· Every day of our lives matters to God
· Every arena of human life matters to God
McClung sums it up best, ““When Jesus is the Lord of our lives, being ‘full time’ is not a vocation but an attitude. We say yes to Jesus, and He chooses the location. We embrace our gifts and interests in life, and he mobilizes us to where He wants us to serve Him. Every place is a full-time place of service, and every day is a holy day”.
Over and over in the New Testament we read about the necessity of Christians coming together as the body of Christ to be equipped and for mutual edification through a variety of ways. I cannot emphasise enough our gatherings as a church in the form of our LTGs and our Sunday services – our two main staples by intention – are important, along with volunteering at the church but so is our scattering as a church from Mondays to Saturdays! The church gathered and scattered are two sides of the same coin.
This means what we do outside the church can be acts of worship and service to God as much as what we do inside the church! The church on Mondays should be evidence that the church on Sundays is real! It should be evidence that we are distinct from the world, for the world. I love what Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God”.
The Scripture is consistently clear that we are not to be spectators but active, wholehearted and full partners with the Holy Spirit in being bearers of good news about the wonderful grace of God wherever we are. This is how the kingdom of God comes and how His will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. The Greek word for church, ‘ekklesia’, refers to Greek governmental meetings where the reason for gathering was to make decisions and act upon them.
Our gatherings on Sundays then are times when we come together to be refreshed, encouraged and equipped that we might become more and more, as Miroslav Volf puts it, a mature community of vision and character who celebrate faith as a way of life as we gather before God for worship and who, sent by God, live it out as we scatter to pursue God’s mission for us in our frontlines.
Have faith in God!
Mark Ng
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