Weekly Devotion: Xenia
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What defines a community of faith? What makes a church a church?
That’s a question I’ve been trying to answer for a long time. As a pastor, you are trained to see church not just as a people, but as made up of programs and budgets, and mission statements. When churches are facing decline, we talk about even more programs and being innovative and the like.
But does that really make a church?
I’m learning through life, that what makes a church is the power of the Spirit in the life a community.
As many of you know, my mother suffered a stroke in early July. What has mattered in these days following the event is how the community that I am proud to serve came together to offer prayers and support. In the end, it is the Holy Spirit working through the people who make up this community of faith that makes a church a church.
I’ve seen this in action again and again in this community of faith. When a woman who just started attending the church had her only son die, a number of members went to the funeral. They didn’t know much about this woman, but they went anyway.
The text for this week comes from the second chapter of Acts and takes place just after Pentecost. This new community gathers together and participates in everyday life. Sometimes people look at this passage and make it into a justification for socialism or whatever. But I think that this is actually a peek into what church was all about.
In the Sunday sermon, I shared about a proposed new name for First Christian: Xenia. This word is the Greek word for hospitality. We like to think about hospitality about welcoming strangers which is part of the word, but it’s also about welcoming and caring for one another and I saw that this week with our small church.
Thank you for showing Xenia, and thanks for your continued prayers for my Mom.
Dennis Sanders, Pastor
Prayer: God, in an age where we tend to think we don’t need anyone, you remind us through your church that we need each other. Help us to be a community empowered by the Spirit to care for each other and to welcome and love the stranger. Amen.