An Undistracted Church

[intro]Regardless of culture, denomination or size, if you go to any church in the world you will see activities centered on worship, prayer, teaching and mission.[/intro]

There is a paradox in the church today. Worship, prayer, teachings and mission can easily become things “we do” to earn God’s love, approval, acceptance and how we view ourselves as righteous. But, from a biblical standpoint, we do these things to celebrate and praise God, and remind ourselves what God Himself has down for every believer: that we are already loved, approved, accepted, and declared righteous by the Creator of the Universe.

Volumes have been written on the topics of mission and prayer. You can download and listen to thousands of messages from great teachers all over the world or pick any style of worship songs to sing on your way to work. In spite of all this, there will always be a tendency for churches and individual believers to drift away from our main purpose and action. (Hebrews 2:1)

In Acts the church was exploding in growth. Along with that growth were challenges, busy schedules and headaches. It would have been tempting for the leaders to get caught up with the urgency of the daily needs, issues and concerns that engulfed them. Instead, the leaders huddled, assigned some men to help with these needs, and reinforce to the entire church the priority.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

Acts 6:4

This holds true for the church and believers today. We must not allow the urgency of the day to distract us or pull us away from our main purpose. Prayer, worship and teaching help us to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and to keep Him the main mission in our lives.

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip with my 15 year old son to Mexico to serve in some orphan homes. On Sunday we attended a church where the entire sermon, music and conversation were in Spanish. We were greeted warmly with smiles, acceptance and encouragement. The worship was loud, lively and filled with people expressing themselves in a manner different than what my son had ever seen. Afterwards we were embraced by people who could not communicate with us but clearly shared a deep connection. When we left, I asked my son what he thought of it all. “It was awesome dad, I didn’t understand a word they said, but they sure were excited about Jesus.”

At the end times, the church universal will come together in heaven—as a body, a chosen people, a temple of the Holy Spirit, and celebrate a wedding feast for all eternity the majesty, greatness and glory of our God.

This has been excerpted from the book Credo. DOWNLOAD A COPY, or get a physical copy for free at your venue’s info center!