Where God Lives
Church is not the only one place where God smiles when people serve him.
Marne worships often and reads her Bible regularly, integrating her faith into her daily life; she wants to make a more meaningful difference by serving God and helping others but feels inadequate, and her church really doesn’t provide many opportunities for this beyond joining a committee. Quite frankly, she isn’t involved at all serving at church. It’s as if she’s a stranger on the outside looking in. Peering through the stained glass windows and observing the 20% of church members who really make the church go.
Whether you consider yourself part of that 20%, part of the 80%, disconnected from church altogether, dipping your toes in the water, or a bit confused about where exactly you and the church stand, God has something he wants you to consider that’ll change your perspective.
The liveliness of Marne’s faith hasn’t found an outlet of service to God. That stifles her joy and triggers her guilt. She knows she should be doing more. Part of the problem is that her pastor has promoted the faulty understanding that Christians serve God by joining a church committee, attending church meetings, ushering at church, teaching Sunday School at church, or giving money to church.
God says, however, that serving him isn’t limited to the projects and programs of a physical church. “You are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).
God is speaking to believers, who live, work, and play in many places not even near the zip code of their church building. He tells believers that we are a dwelling, someone inhabited, lived in by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, wherever believers go, whatever believers do, whomever believers help, we are always serving. The Spirit, living in us, equips us and then energizes our skills and spirituality, our passions and personality, and he gives us the right words and the right opportunities to make a difference at work, at home, at play, and at church. Yes, we need people – more people – to volunteer at church, but church is not the only one place where God smiles when people serve him.
Marne needs someone to take her to lunch, ask her what she likes to do, what she’s good at, and tell her to do that and do it well. That’s serving God. It’s not so much about serving in the church but serving as the church, as a believer who is making a difference, using what God gives.
PRAYER: Bless all believers everywhere, God. Encourage us to use our gifts wherever we go and in whatever we do, serving you gladly, whether our efforts are recognized or not. Build us up in our faith, and live in every one of our decisions today. Amen.