Church with a Capital “C”

The vision for Love INC of Greater Hancock County (#loveincghc) is stated as: “We envision a community transformed by faith – where  Christian churches are united in purpose and fully engaged in actively living out their faith by lovingly serving people in need in Greater Hancock County.”

Uniting in purpose while recognizing doctrinal differences presents a challenge at times for our core principle of UNITY. I found this devotional from Today God Is First to be helpful.  Enjoy.

The Church

“Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you” (Lev 26:8).

The Church is called to impact the world. The biblical definition “church” is not an institution or building, but rather it is made up of individuals. Jesus said “wherever two or more meet together, I am in the midst of them.” The biblical word translated as “church” is ekklesia which is the original Greek meaning “the people of God.”

The New Testament used this word in two different ways. Sometimes it refers to people of God gathered together in congregations. That is our traditional idea of the local church. But other times it means believers in general, wherever they might find themselves.

God calls the Church to be transformers of society through their collective influence. Jesus prayed that His Church would be unified in order for the world to respond to Him. “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23). The enemy of the Church is secularism, a religion that says there is no God. When local congregations fail to come together as a collective voice and operate instead as individual silos in their community society is given over to the evils created as a result of an unbelieving society. Conversely, when the Body of Christ – the Church puts its collective resources together to solve societal issues, our enemies; crime, poverty, sexual perversion, etc. will fall by the sword of a unified Church.

God is birthing city coalitions of His Church among congregations in the city in order to fulfill John 17:23. Are you willing to be a catalyst in your community to see His Church take back your city?