I found myself quite discouraged last Saturday afternoon. The worship team was rehearsing. Our technical staff and volunteers were getting ready to record our 7th worship service (including Good Friday) since COVID “social distancing” began.
I have a pattern of walking through the Worship Centre and praying. I walk the same way every Sunday morning through the same pews as I criss-cross my way across the entire Worship Centre. I have done this for a few years now. And even though people have not been in the building recently, I have kept up this practice of prayer.
For the first few weeks the lockdown was a novelty, something that I thought would perhaps last 8-10 weeks at most, with Medicine Hat largely untouched by the actual virus. Now, with the virus knocking at our door, and an increase in recent cases in Brooks, it appears we will be social distancing for longer than any of us imagined when this all began.
So, as I walked my normal prayer path on Saturday afternoon, I started out discouraged. I was feeling the loss of connection with all of you. I was feeling the weight of the pastoral call to reach the lost and shepherd the church.
But when I began to pray, Jesus reminded me of a simple truth that He taught me a long time ago. It is a simple truth about the church. You see Jesus commanded us – all of us – to make disciples. Jesus never commanded us to build ‘the church’. He commanded us to make disciples. In fact, Jesus laid the responsibility of building the church squarely on His own shoulders, not on ours. In effect, Jesus said, “If you make disciples, I will build My church.”
With every step and every word of prayer I felt strength returning to my spirit. I felt the Lord saying, “I am building My church through all of this, even though you cannot see it happening.”
In Ephesians 4, Paul says, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” And he is talking here about living out that calling of disciple-making that Jesus gave to each one of us.
We are called to make disciples; to find lost people and hurting people and to help bring them into the family of God. That is the calling we have all received.
And, we are called to live a life that reflects the love and the character of Jesus Christ. Paul says, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” When he reminds us of humility and patience, he is reminding us of Jesus himself because those qualities truly reflect the character of Christ.
Later on, Paul says that all of this work – the work of disciple-making and growth and character building – when all of this work is done, Paul says, this will be the result:
Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. (Ephesians 4:14–15, NLT)
I believe that Jesus is deepening His church during this time. He is doing a deeper work in you. He is doing a deeper work in me. He is being faithful to Shepherd us. He is being faithful to build His church. And one day, when we can meet together again, we will see the fruits of the work that God is doing right now in all of us. We will be stronger as a result of it.
As I walked the Worship Centre on Saturday afternoon, I grew more and more encouraged and Jesus gave me just a tiny glimpse of all that He is doing through this time. He is building His church. He is still being faithful. He is taking care of you. He is taking care of all of us. He is Shepherding us. He is building us. He is strengthening us.
Jesus promise still endures. “I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” (Matthew 16:18, NLT)
In His Grip, Pastor Steve