SABBATH

Someone asked me about 'the Sabbath' the other day - what it meant - why we don't follow it like they used to - if we should follow it in different ways than we currently do.

I pondered it and, as usual, in my answer - ultimately went a whole different direction.

Often we communicate that God is up in heaven monitoring His cosmic seating chart, demanding that all the church buildings be full on Sundays. Gee ... I'm not sure.

Church gatherings were never the intended goal; they were the natural result of people finding others who were living the Alternative Kingdom Story. The goal of our missional lives is not to grow churches. The goal of church is to grow missionaries. The goal of the Gospel is not to get people into church. The result of the Gospel is that people will find each other and then gather together because of the deep meaning of a common experience.

We have the exhortation in Hebrews 10:24, 25 of course that says: 'Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.'

But that was not a plea for people to get their lazy fannies out of bed and into church on Sunday. It was an encouragement for early Christians who feared for their lives, hiding in dark alleys, seeing their friends killed, to gather despite great persecution. It was a plea for people to push past their fears and come together with those of like mission - with those who were in desperate need of being encouraged by the stories of those whose lives were also in peril because of the Gospel.

Either way that's what I need yet today.

And be blessed.