Westwood Message–October 21, 2010

Great Communion – Great Day

We had a good crowd and spirited worship service for Great Communion 2 last Sunday at Mandrake Road Church of Christ. Here is some of what took place:

• Four singers from the gathered churches led an a capella worship service with everyone in full voice as they worshiped the Lord.

• We took an offering toward this year’s CROP Hunger Walk which took place on Sunday in Madison. The offering totaled $763.00.

• The preachers from the four churches, Roy Ratcliff from Mandrake Road Church of Christ, Lance Hawley from Emmaus Christian Fellowship, Bob Lawrence from Community Christian Church, and I shared a message from Ephesians 4 on “The Nature of a Unified Church.” We discussed (1) the church’s calling; (2) the church’s unity; (3) the church’s ministry; and (4) the church matures.
• We concluded the service with communion, following a thoughtful meditation by Keith Schoville on the importance of gathering weekly and taking the Lord’s Supper.

Everyone enjoyed the rich fellowship and worship in a full building. I can think of no more appropriate way for us to gather as sister churches than for us to discuss the theme of the unity that we all share in Christ. How should that unity cause us to live for Christ? It was good to think together about that.

I can also think of no more appropriate way to demonstrate that unity than to share together in taking communion. We remember the Lord’s death, of course, when we take communion, and it is his death that binds us together as brothers and sisters in his name. What an encouragement it is to know that other believers in our city are united with us in Christ.

New Sermon Series, “The Hole In Our Gospel,” Begins October 24

On Sunday, we will begin a Six Week Quest as I begin a sermon series, “The Hole in Our Gospel.” Through the series I will develop themes from Scripture that Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, develops in his book The Hole In Our Gospel.

A few years ago, Stearns found a “hole” in his Gospel as he struggled with a decision to leave his position as CEO of Lenox, the fine china company, to become president of World Vision, a ministry to the poorest of the poor in our world. He found that there was something lacking in how he was living out his Christian life. He identified the “hole” in his Gospel and sought to begin living out the WHOLE Gospel. We will explore that theme from the Scriptures for the next six weeks.

Harvest Dinner Is November 14

Our annual Harvest Dinner will take place on November 14 at 5:30 PM. Plan to come and bring a friend. Beginning Sunday, you can sign up to come and eat, bring a pie, help set up, or help clean up and put things away. The main meal will be provided. Plan for a great evening together.

A Rescue That Captured the World’s Attention

Last Sunday, at the end of the message we delivered at Great Communion 2, I spoke briefly about last week’s rescue of the miners in Chile. One billion people around the world, including me, watched on television and the Internet as the 33 miners were rescued from the mine where they had been trapped for 69 days. Those miners went to work on the day this drama began, as they had many days before, with no thought that the mine would collapse that day and they would have no communication with the outside world for 17 days.

Over the course of two months, their rescuers worked diligently first to drill a shaft down to the miners in order to establish communication with them. Then they painstakingly drilled a larger shaft that a capsule large enough for a single man to fit in. One-by-one they brought each man to the surface. Family and friends would greet each one as he emerged from the capsule and the miner would be taken for medical evaluation. As each one was taken away by the medical people, the men operating the capsule would already be sending it back down the shaft to get the next miner. They literally rescued those miners from a pit and brought them to safety.

That rescue operation is a good picture of the church. Medical people and miners all used their gifts to rescue people. That is what we are to do in the church. The salvation of those who come to Christ is far greater than being rescued from a mine. We are to establish communication with those who do not know Christ, and then work to bring them to the knowledge of salvation through Christ. When people are welcomed into the family of Christ, we are then to go back to work to reach others.. Christ literally rescues people from the pit and brings them to safety, and he uses us to accomplish this task. Let’s continue working to that end.

If you would like to read two good commentaries from Christian leaders on the Chilean rescue, you can find one by Charles Colson at BreakPoint and one by Mark Taylor, editor of Christian Standard at their website.