A few weeks ago I preached from Acts 2 on what it means to be the church, both gathered locally and scattered in our communities. Today I was reading about a guy named Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan. He recently preached a sermon entitled, "What to Do Now." You know, sometimes you wish you were the guy to come up with this stuff. Pastor DeYoung made several great, practical statements on what you can do to be the church. Here is a summary of his points and what you can do now:
- Find a good local church.
- Get involved.
- Become a member.
- Stay there as long as you can.
- Put away thoughts of a revolution for a while.
- Join the plodding visionaries.
- Go to church this Sunday and worship in Spirit and truth.
- Be patient with your leaders.
- Rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed.
- Bear with those who hurt you.
- Give people the benefit of the doubt.
- Say “hi” to the teenager that no one notices.
- Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.
- Volunteer for the nursery.
- Attend the congregational meeting.
- Bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everybody else.
- Invite a friend.
- Take a new couple out for coffee.
- Give to the Christmas offering.
- Sing like you mean it.
- Be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet for you.
- Enjoy the Sundays that “click.”
- Pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t.
- And in all of this, do not despise the days and weeks and years of small things (Zechariah 4:8–10).
Let us all pray, consider these things, do these things, and
BE THE CHURCH!
