Church... or something like it!

~ I had the pleasure of meeting a new couple this week who are searching for God, answers and a church. I invited the couple to attend a service at my church so they could see if they liked it. I was asked to give a small testimony at this study (where we met) and much to my own surprise found my self talking about how important church was to me. i have always been the one to tell people " I am a firm believer that you don't need church to be a Christian" which you don't as long as you don't forsake the meeting together in His name. Well until i started talking and sharing i didn't realize just how important my church was to me.

I started to talk about how i was saved at an Alpha Meeting some 6 years ago and how since then i had been nurtured and cared for spiritually by some members of our congregation. How the Sunday Services helped to keep my focus on Him not me during the following week. How my church was an extended family. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Some feel like parents and grand-parents, imparting wisdom, others like wacky younger siblings whom i try to mother, but all in all they are my family. God says that when we come to Him and accept Jesus as our saviour the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us making us part of the family. Nickey Gumbel - who does the Alpha videos - says when we are "saved" we are adopted by God and into His family of infinite believers. Wow, i have a big family!

So while you may not NEED church to be a Christian i would have to say that being a Christian would not be the same without it. God wanted us to gather together in His name, to worship, praise and teach. A building does not a church make. whether you are in a house, an old victorian church, a modern warehouse style building, a school gym or as in the picture above shows an inflatable church for mobile services (*smile*) it is not the building that matters. God is in it if we are. A church is any group of believers whose purpose is to love, teach, comfort, make disciples and spread the gospel, and i would not want to make this journey without the love, support and guidance of my church family.

Father, I praise your name and thank you earnestly for adopting me into your family. For gifting me with a body of believers that i can call on. Thank you for the support of other Christians. Please put it on my heart Lord to BE the example i have SEEN, to others who are searching for a family or may be just signing the adoption papers now. I pray your blessing on all my family in all the world today and always. In Jesus name, Amen

Praising his name

Leanne