How Committed Are You?

Is loyalty overrated? Look around our culture today, we are loyal to companies and brands until a better deal or technology comes around. We are loyal to sports teams as long as they are relevant and give us hope they can compete. We are loyal to a job until we find something that pays more or allows us to work less. We are loyal to friends as long as they fit our life stage and it fits in our schedule to do life with one another. We are loyal to our significant other as long as they stay fitting the mold we have for them in our minds. We are loyal to our church as long as it meets our needs, supports our beliefs, and is convenient for our schedule.

Ok, that’s probably a little harsh, your loyalty and commitment is probably a little deeper than that, but sadly I believe this summarizes the large scale of our culture. Jobs don’t seem to last longer than 3 years, marriages fall short of 7 years, and churches come and go depending on the season. If we are honest our culture is awful at committing to anything, but is that what the Bible calls us to do?

“And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching” Hebrews 10:24-25

God never wanted us to be so wishy-washy, He always desired for us to be in loyal, committed, and accountable communities that push us out of our comfort zones and into our best selves. So, how do we commit full fledge to a spiritual family?

Worship Together

One of, if not the biggest, reasons we gather as a church is to worship with one another, the problem I think we run into is properly defining worship. In its most basic sense worship is showing reverence and adoration for our God. Where we have too narrowly defined this in the American church is seeing it only in relation to singing songs, while worship is not less than that, it is more. I would define worship within a church context as prayer, singing songs/making music, reading of God’s Word, and the sacraments (baptism and communion).

Some could argue that it expands beyond these four categories, but the point is that when we commit to a spiritual family, we commit to worshipping with one another. Worship is a vital aspect of why we gather together and how we grow together and frankly, we have taken that for granted and often neglected it in our current day churches. When we miss Sunday and miss times of worship it not only impacts our relationship with God, but it impacts our relationship with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Practice Community

Our church recently finished a series studying through the book of Hebrews and before we even reached chapter 10 there was a theme that would pop up about how the church interacted with one another. How they did life together, encouraged one another, disciplined one another, and strove to be better together than apart. I believe one of the greatest strengths of the church is that it is a practice field for doing community with one another that should have a safety net when we make mistakes.

Think about it, relationships are messy…people will disappoint you, they may gossip, they may not show up, they may hurt your feelings, but the church is distinct in that we are called to make peace and forgive one another. It is a lot easier to do that when both sides are commanded to take that step than when one side is not. Meaning inside a church, we should jump at the chance to resolve conflict…outside the church, a friend with an atheistic worldview might not feel the same because they have no moralistic conviction to resolve the conflict.

If we can’t be friendly, encouraging, forgiving, and grace-filled towards other Christians who are trying to be all those things back to us, how do you think we have a chance to display those Jesus qualities to a hostile world? Committing to a church family gives us a practice field to hone our skills to take to a more difficult world.

Be Generous

I can naturally be pretty stingy with my money, time, and resources. I’m married, I have 4 kids, and I work hard so when I have money, time, and resources to myself I can be selfish. However, I find an incredible encouragement mixed with conviction when I watch other people inside my church display such generosity.

When the guy working 2 jobs and 70 hours a week gives 6 hours of his week volunteering for FREE to the church, I am inspired. When the single mom who is barely getting by on her rent continues to give consistently out of her income to the church, I am humbled. When the retired tradesman works on electrical, irrigation, and landscaping around the church because they have the skill, I am filled with joy. Generosity inside the church to God’s house and to one another is infectious and necessary for us to commit to growing in our relationships and community with each other. You cannot have a real relationship if you are never giving anything, if you are never sacrificing, if you are never investing in something and someone then you are just selfishly focusing on yourself!

Serve Willingly

The last part of committing to a spiritual family is similar to being generous and has some overlap, but is another step further in serving one another. Look at the life of Jesus, He generously provided miracles for His disciples, He taught them, and He spent time with them, but then acts of service like washing their feet and dying on the cross just brought it to another level.

When we are generous to our church family, it starts to open our eyes to how can we radically serve them. It may start at serving for a weekend service or church ministry, but then it quickly becomes organic like helping someone move, helping them with home projects, praying with them in the midst of tragedy, watching their kids so they can have a date night, the list can go on and on. When we begin to willingly serve our brothers and sisters in Christ it re-wires our brain from how does something benefit me, but how can I benefit others and the beauty is that is exactly what living out the Kingdom of God looks like.

I firmly believe that our world is so lonely today because it is so unwilling to commit to making other people’s lives better rather than focusing on the tunnel vision of their life right now. Jesus gives us the answer, its right in front of us if we are willing to step through the door of a church building and commit to the real church, the people of God.