<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

We the Church: The Priesthood of All Believers

As we open the word of God, would you bow your heads with me as we acknowledge him once more.

Father in heaven, yes, we are here today not merely because we chose to come, but because you ordained for us to be here for such a time as this.

And Lord, even though we're in the midst of very strange times, we still know that the church is the apple of your eye, that the church is the very place where you meet with humanity, where you meet with us.

And today, Lord, as we gather in the church, ask the church, we ask, Lord, that you would reveal to us a greater and possibly a deeper understanding of who we are and why we exist.

The message today is entitled, We, the Church, the Priesthood of All Believers.

This last spring, The news headlines were delivering content messages unheard of in today's generation.

Headlines that we never imagined we would be reading.

Headlines such as, local churches and places of worship to be closed due to COVID-19.

Another headline read multiple churches close hold online worship due to COVID-19.

Yet another title said churches shift to streamed services amid coronavirus concerns.

You've seen these headlines and many more.

Headlines that are unprecedented in our generation.

And to think that for 15, believe me I checked the calendar, I was counting, for 15 consecutive weeks our doors here at the Living Hope Church and many other churches were closed to the general public.

Social distancing literally pushed churches online across the country and literally around the world.

In fact, I was surprised but not surprised to notice, to read that in April of this spring, approximately 90% of churches in the United States were closed entirely.

Did you ever imagine that we would be in these circumstances?

In some states, such as ours here in Virginia, churches have been allowed to open for several weeks and we could be thankful that that circumstances somewhat have improved.

Since mid-July most, not all, most US religious attenders have indicated that their churches are now open.

And of course in a harder-hit places, many pastors are still waiting for the official blessing of their state and local governments.

In fact, this weekend, August 15, this very weekend marks 6 months, 6 months since the nation's response to COVID-19, when most governors ironically called congregations out of churches.

Ironic, if only because the Ecclesia, which is a New Testament Greek word, translated church, was called out of the church.

You see, ekklesia is the Greek word translated church and it means called out.

The word is a compound of 2 segments, ek, which is a proposition meaning out of, out of, out of, and a verb, kaleo, signifying to call.

Church goers no longer had a place to go.

And in being called out of the church, literally, many church goers found themselves, well, out of place at home.

After all, being a Christian means attending a religious event in a building called the church, right?

Barna Group, a well-known group that takes polls of various subjects and topics related to the church, Barna Group made some interesting findings regarding COVID-19.

Online church attendance among practicing Christians from late April to early May.

So those who are watching online today, well, this pertains to you.

While 35% were still and only attending their pre-COVID church online, in other words, they were still watching, tuning in to their home church, 32% stopped attending church during COVID-19, since the pandemic just basically struck the world.

To give you that same stat, but maybe from just a little different perspective, that means that 1 in 3 practicing Christians pre-COVID stopped attending church during that time.

Stopped attending as is no online viewing, no online service, no church, nothing, Nothing.

You know, a few months later, now here we are in mid-August, a few months later 1 can only wonder if stats have changed drastically, drastically.

Because after all, and I might have a witness here, Not attending church for a minimal of 3 weeks, 21 days, 3 weeks can be a habit-forming enough.

I mean, I've been, I've missed church and I can count in 1 hand how many times I've done that in my 20 some years of ministry by God's grace.

But when I had to miss church even 1 week, It threw me off, threw me off.

I had to intentionally remind myself that this is the day that the Lord has made.

You know for many churchgoers, an extended absence from church has led, shall we say, to a loss of identity.

If only because when asked, what makes you a Christian?

1 of the reasons that hits the top 5 list is I attend church.

A loss of identity, A loss of interest in things that we once enjoyed?

I don't know what it means to be a Christian anymore.

It was in the late 80s, And yes, I was a young teenager in the late 80s, and there was a vocal band or a vocal group called a cappella vocal band, closely associated with Another a cappella group called simply a cappella They were organized or managed by the same Manager Keith Lancaster, and they were just my favorite group.

I loved to listen to a cappella And I still have their cassettes Yes, sir.

Wow, some of you are looking at me like, what is a cassette?

Well they sang the song entitled, You Can't Go to Church.

You Can't Go to Church, that was the name of the song.

In fact, I think it was the name of the album.

And the lyrics went something like this, you can't go to church as some people say.

The common terminology we use every day, you can go to a building, see I'm starting to want to sing this.

You can go to a building that is something you can do, but you can't go to church because the church is you?

We haven't been to church for months, many of us may say, what is the church then?

Yes, we know it's a building in a physical address.

But as the popular slogan goes, and I'm sure you've heard it time and time again, especially during these days, The church has left the building.

For the Apostle Paul, it was no longer something used to separate people from people.

Back to Menu

We the Church: The Priesthood of All Believers

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine