Doing Church or Being the Church

This post has a bit of overlap with a previous post, but I feel so strongly about this that it merits its own entry. Group life is the best way I know to help Christians to begin being the church rather than to fall into the trap of doing church. There’s something I heard from Greg Laurie years back that has stuck with me: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than hanging out at McDonalds makes you a hamburger!” OK, so the analogy breaks down a bit, but you have to love the core of the message, namely that you can spend your entire life in a church and never really get it. How many times have you listened to an excellent sermon, one which exposed the truth of the Word very clearly, and heard the applications, even challenges, offered by the preacher, and nodded in agreement, yet failed to follow through?

It is a very difficult thing to be in a group, agree on an item of action, and then flake out. It’s called peer pressure, or better yet, peer accountability. All of us know of the sway that others can have on behavior. Unfortunately, most of the time we recognize the negative potential from peer influence rather than seizing the good that God actually designed into us as social creatures. In community, we have every opportunity to actually put feet to our faith and live out our calling. And others will be there to help you "get 'er done." But, be forewarned: You can still flake out, but you’re going to have a much harder time explaining it away.

Read this blog post: http://ricksthoughtsandramblings.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-bike-ride-and-great-small-group.html