Dear Church Family,
Let’s go back to our early days when life was simple. You got to play outside without fear. You had no temptation to spend time playing videos games or streaming movies because that technology did not exist. One snowy day all the neighborhood kids gather. Someone suggests a big snowball battle between teams. For reasons unknown all five teams have five members except yours. You alone comprise the team. How would you do in the competition? You would cry (maybe with tears of hurt and anger) “Unfair!” Having twenty people pummel you with snowballs would be no fun. Sadly, more than a few of God’s people try to live as a team of one.
As a church family we must fight any urge we have to live in isolation from other Christians. First, I John 1:7 proclaims, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” Christians must see themselves as “blood brothers and sisters.” We live as salt and light in our fallen world because Jesus has shed His blood to pay for our sins. We walk (live) in the One who came as the “Light of the World.” John states as fact that “we have fellowship with one another.” That means we have all things in common with other members of our church. Remember God calls every person who trusts in Christ a saint, that is, a holy person.
Phil Ryken wrote a book titled, “The Communion of the Saints.” In it he notes the Bible never uses saint in the singular. Over sixty times the plural ‘saints’ describes God’s people. Paul addresses the books of Ephesians and Philippians “to the saints in Christ Jesus.” God has designed His holy people to live in the plural and not the singular – in community and not in isolation.
This is why “virtual church” feels weird. During the pandemic we have had to adjust, yet I hope you pray and yearn for the day we can worship as a body of more than forty people. For this reason one adult Sunday School class will meet this Sunday. If safety measures can be maintained, the Session hopes other classes can resume. We will continue “to err on the side of safety,” while striving to function as the church needs to operate as a community.
Ryken observes, “In a day when Christians are more divided than united, true believers must again commit themselves to their common spiritual communion with one another.” Again and again, it is a blessing to be part of the universal church as well as part of a local church. Look for opportunities to practice the ‘one another’ habits of a healthy church family and do your best to not be a team of one if at all possible.
Living by grace to His glory,
Pastor Gillikin