We are Church Members!

Last Sunday was a great one; although I got home just in time for church, it was a good thing I did, and I had gotten enough sleep that church was not miserable. Quite the opposite!

We became official members at Metrobrook, the church we have been involved in for two years. It was really exciting for us because it's the first time we've become members of a church! We love the mission and heart of Metrobrook, and have been pretty involved over the last couple years. We started looking into membership about a year and a half ago, and took the membership class 8 months ago. With our schedule it just took a while. We hesitated completing the process since we are leaving so soon, but one of the pastors assured us that we should; that we have been active in the church, and it is not bad that we are leaving right away, in fact they plan to "send us off" even though we are not really going through them. I find that so encouraging that they are not too concerned with how we are going, but they want to support us regardless.

Becoming members was not the only good thing about Sunday morning. I also really related to part of the message: Our pastor made reference to being tired of hearing people's excuses that they are still "baby Christians" and not prepared to serve the community in various ways.

Well, I recall feeling that way as I headed off to the Virginia Beach Summer Project I talked about before. I sometimes did not feel like I knew the Bible well enough or lived a Christian life well enough, which was completely unfounded. First of all, I had already been a Christian for about 3 years, so the baby Christian term may not have fit, but furthermore, I had been in Bible studies and discipleship relationships at Northwestern. Fortunately, those feelings did not keep me from going!

That summer, we studied the book of Hebrews, and I distinctly remember the verses in Hebrews 5:12-14 that say, "By now you should have been teachers, but once again you need to be taught the simplest things about what God has said. You need milk instead of solid food. People who live on milk are like babies who don't really know what is right. Solid food is for mature people who have been trained to know right from wrong." The scolding at the beginning helped me to make efforts to move from "milk" to "solid food" spiritually. It helped me gain a little more knowledge of the Bible, and the summer boosted my confidence.

Returning to Sunday's message, we looked at 2 Corinthians 3:4-6, which states that, "Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

The part about competence was the crux of why the "baby Christian" excuse is weak, and also, as it says, what gives me the somewhat unexpected feeling of confidence I have as we prepare to go to Kenya.

Sorry for some theological thoughts lately; we'll try to share more about the status of our physical preparations along with these spiritual ones. In the meantime, have a great 4th of July... Happy Independence Day!