Everyone is reevaluating their priorities. With all the upheaval in society, we have to ask, “What matters most?”
For us, Jesus Christ is the paramount priority. Our first desire is to know and be known by him. “To live is Christ . . .” Paul says (Phil. 1:21). In a time of resignation and reluctance, we enter a season of Recommitment in November.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Jesus, you said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). I know, and you know better, that my love for you has faltered. My heart and soul are bent toward self. My mind is easily distracted and my strength fails. But I know you are gracious. Forgive me. Show me loving kindness. Reform my heart and soul, mind and strength, that I may be fully devoted to you. Amen.
Word: 1 Corinthians 12:12
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
Meditation
There is a sentiment in our age that resists membership and commitment. There is a reluctance to join things that require things of us. Long standing organizations are declining. 4H, Scouts, churches, volunteer organizations.
C.S. Lewis once provided a helpful outline of membership. It included common confession (we share belief), common care (we share love for each other), and common mission (we share a purpose). The key word is “common.” Members are bound together, sharing life in common.
The definition of membership has evolved. Membership today is more like a subscription. You sign up to get something. Membership is soaring with Sam’s Club and Costco. Netflix and Amazon Prime. Membership is viewed in terms of “what I get,” instead of “what I give.”
This is antithetic to biblical membership in the church. It is likened to a body. Each part is unique and distinct. Each organ plays a functional role that benefits the entire body. The body is not simply a collection of independent parts. We are interdependent pieces of a whole. We are not a parasite or cancer, simply feeding off the body for ourselves. We are actively contributing to something bigger.
Now is a good time for the church to reassess what membership is. You’re not simply a name in a database or a butt in the pew. You’re a part of a dynamic body. Jesus himself is the Head, guiding and leading us. This is a cause worthy of our commitment.
We pray: Lord of the Church, bind us together by your grace. We are rogue parts of a body unless you bind us together. Forgive our lack of commitment. Enable us to fulfill the role assigned, to your glory. Amen.
Prayer
O Lord Jesus, who bore the cross for us, help me to take up my cross daily and follow you. I love you; fill me where I lack love. Where my footsteps falter, be the strength in my weakness. I humbly ask you. Amen.
Benediction
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (I Tim. 1:17)