Why The Church Exists

There is a paradox that God desires to happen within the church. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously stated, “The Church is only the Church when it exists for others.” When any given local church begins to think about the next planned fund raising event, or which Christmas decorations they are going to display more than the daily plight of fellow believers in the community and around the world, the church has lost its purpose and focus.

What happens whenever a local church properly exists for others, however, is that they feel the incredible sense of being “one with them.” They then do not feel as those they are serving “others,” but rather they view the entire body as one; including themselves in with the persecuted. This is the glorious paradox we see modeled for us in scripture. Can we challenge ourselves to be ‘one with them' more, in all that we do? We understand that this brings God all the glory. When we read stories of the persecuted, pray with us that God grants us with the understanding that we are in fact reading a story about our own family – not simply someone else’s, but ours. Those who do the will of God, who bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ, these are the members of of Jesus' family, these are the ones who belong to what the Apostle Paul calls the "household of faith."