{"id":6899,"date":"2014-05-11T01:00:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-11T05:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=6899"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/church\/","title":{"rendered":"CHURCH"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calvin<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Church at its best is more than a spectator experience.\u00a0 It is a fellowship of people equipping themselves for ministry and witness.\u00a0 The call of God has always been for His people to be actively involved in making a redemptive difference in the world.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 Church, therefore, is a learning resource, a training ground, and an experimental laboratory\u00a0in the art of Christian living.\u00a0 Whatever transpires in the context of church is of great importance to every area of our lives.\u00a0 We cannot attend church in the same way we go to the theater.\u00a0 An entertainment mentality is not conducive to discipleship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Church at its best requires a commitment to the higher things of life.\u00a0 There is no call like the call of God, which finds expression in the church.\u00a0 It challenges the moral and ethical fibers of our being.\u00a0 It pleads with us to minimize the things of the world as we maximize spiritual realities.\u00a0 Earthly ambitions are flavored with Godly motives.\u00a0\u00a0Love of self is defined only in the context of love for neighbor and love for God.\u00a0 Wealth is seen against a background of need.\u00a0 Stewardship becomes a matter of properly using that which we have.\u00a0 Ministry becomes the password of our lives as compassion grants us entrance into the hurting side of society.\u00a0 If we are serious about God we cannot leave events at church in the same way we leave the theater.\u00a0 A take-it-or-leave-it attitude does not produce commitment.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Church at its best is a fellowship of Jesus’ followers.\u00a0 We do not go it alone.\u00a0 There is a body of believers to whom we relate.\u00a0 In the strength of togetherness we struggle with the issues of life.\u00a0 God calls us into spiritual cooperation where we honor Him by honoring one another.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is a public dimension to our faith.\u00a0 Lest we become spiritual hermits, we sing some of our songs and pray some of our prayers with our brothers and sisters in Christ.\u00a0 Church gives us a place to observe and experience the operations of grace.\u00a0The power of people energizes us to seek the will of God and in so doing\u00a0 we find a reason for which to live.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Church at its best is\u00a0our most wholesome inspiration to do our best because “the church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ\u00a0 her Lord.”<\/span><\/div>\n

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   Church at its best is more than a spectator experience.  It is a fellowship of people equipping themselves for ministry and witness.  The call of God has always been for His people to be actively involved in making a redemptive difference in the world.     Church, therefore, is a learning resource, a training … Continue reading “CHURCH”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-6899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-christian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19158,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6899\/revisions\/19158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}