What is Church???

Today (July 5th 2005) marks my 1 year anniversary of being the Youth Pastor at Northwest Langley Baptist Church. As you can see in the picture, some of these days are pretty rediculous, often hillarious, and generally phenominal. *For those who are wanting to know what exactly I am pointing at...place your best guess here: ____________________.

This has been a year of seeing God work in some pretty amazing ways. I have seen one of my students re-commit his life to Christ after a sermon I preached. I have seen our students share their faith openly and with confidence. We have done some pretty wacky events, and I have drank more then my fair share of Coke's and Coffee's while chatting with students. It hasn't been a magic carpet ride this entire year either. I have learned many lessons this year, and am greatful to God for keeping me teachable through them all.

BUT...through all of this...I still labour and toil to figure out "how do we do this thing called church?" Here's a blurb that might shed some light onto this topic:

The essence of the church is that it is a community of people empowered by God on a mission striving to establish the reign of God on this earth. We must not be confused with local businesses in our area whose goal is to meet the needs of individual consumers. We do not exist to market a product or provide a service amidst a free market. Instead, our efforts focus on engaging the culture in which we live and transforming it by lives incarnating the person of Jesus Christ. We are grounded in a specific place, Langley, BC, where we can be a community who critiques and affirms both the culture and the church.

Challenging...

In our quest of knowing God, at times this could mean Encouraging, Inspiring, Helping, Inviting, Questioning, Reassuring, Fortifying, Disputing, Empowering, Struggling. People... We desire to be a bridge in which the gospel continues to be passed on from older to younger generations in the Langley area. However, we not only desire to be an impact locally, but globally as well as we strive to connect the gospel with other communities outside Western culture. By "people" we are not only referring to those in need of redemption, but also that those redeemed might be pressed on in the journey of knowing Christ. Know God... In this phrase lies the whole of Christianity - the means, the end, the goal, the meaning of life itself - as the apostle Paul said "that I may know Him." We would differentiate between a knowledge of God and "to know God," for the mission and goal of our lives is not found in a knowledge but in a knowing - an ongoing relationship with Christ that lives and breathes. We realize that the only lasting satisfaction in life comes from a life that has centered its entire reality around Jesus Christ.
*referenced from University Baptist Church* with slight geographical alterations.

This is only year one of much more jouneying to find an answer. To all my fellow friends who share in my passion to see this generation of students become passionate followers of Jesus; continue to do so knowing that our labour is Kingdom work! Blessings to all of you. I hope that this blog posting has inspired you, or at best challenged you to figure out the answer to "how do we do church" for youself.

1st Thessalonians 2:8 (TNIV) "...so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well."

Soli Deo Gloria:

Ty