I fear that often people think that they are going to join a church, it will provide for them a social club to which they can belong, and all will be puppy dogs and rainbows from here on out.  But if I have learned anything from the last four years of us working together to keep Grafted Community Church a place where people can be grafted into God’s family, it is that the work of doing church is hard, ridiculous, intense, and nearly impossible because we live in a world that is permeated by the presence, power, and result of sin.

As I think about the difficulties in keeping a church going, I think it is important to remember that it is Christ who is really keeping His church running by giving gifts to the children of God so that the church may be built!

This passage from Ephesians has been helpful to me lately.

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Ephesians 4:11-16

One of the reasons I have needed this passage lately is because our church has for a long time relied on Jordan to help each of us do our part of building up Christ’s body.  Because Jordan is no longer employed by our church, each of us is going to have to take a hard look inside of us and see the gifts that God has given to each of us so that we can do our part of building up His body. There is a void let in our church because Jordan did so many wonderful things for our church.  Where are you going to use your gifts to grow Christ’s church?

If you have questions about using your gifts at Grafted, shoot me an email to dave@graftedcc.com and we can get together and figure out how to graft you into the roll!