Guest Post #1

Now THAT Is Being the Church…
by Josh Huff!!!

I hear so much frustration about the church. There is constant chatter about how the church today isn’t what the New Testament church looked like and what the church fathers had in mind when they began meeting together. 

It’s too inward focused

People in church are selfish

They are judgmental 

They are hypocritical 

On and on. I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes contribute to this chatter. Some of it is probably true, but I’m not here to debate that. I’m here to paint a picture of the church being the church… the right way… the way that reflects its head (Christ). Since I began working at a church in the inner city, I have been blessed by several of these pictures, but I want to tell you about one in particular.

J was a great man. He knew what it meant to let God transform his life. There was a lot of transforming to do considering where J came from. But God was doing it. By the time I met J, he was well on his way to becoming the man God created him to be. He truly cared about his church family, and his biological family. He put the Gospel into practice. When God was chiseling away some of the rough edges in J’s life, it wasn’t easy. That didn’t stop J from letting God keep chiseling. 

J passed away this past weekend. It wasn’t expected at all. It’s crazy how God doesn’t think about our timing, but I’m kinda glad He doesn’t. Anyway, he left behind a wife and two young boys, one in kindergarten and one in the third grade. His family didn’t have much. There was no way they could scrounge up enough money to pay for funeral costs. 

Speaking of not having much, that’s the majority of the people I am blessed to worship with at my church. Lots of poverty. Lots of barely getting by, if really getting by at all. Our pastor made one statement: “Funeral arrangements haven’t been finalized yet because they are still about $____ short for the funeral” (amount is not important, but trust me, it’s a good chunk of change). That’s all he said. After service, the people of the church just started bringing up money. They ended the day with more than double the $____. I was absolutely blown away. These families, who are barely getting by, were so incredibly faithful to their church family that they showered them with God’s love in the form of financial support!

What a lesson for me!

I think that’s a pretty good portrait of what the church should look like.

The church is still alive, and I love being a part of it!