Everything in Common

I was a little (actually a lot) late to our weekly meeting yesterday, but arrived just in time to finish up the conversation about the team commissioning service next month. As we talked about what that might look like, we realized that the seven of us represent five very different congregations. I began to again think about how God has put this team together with our different gifts and the beautiful picture of representing different congregation, but one God. We are all His children and our church, style of worship, or denomination is not what is important to Him as we worship, it is our heart. The team has been reading through Acts in preparation for our trip. These earliest church members weren’t concerned about order of worship, contemporary or traditional hymns or how long the service would last. They came to worship their Lord, with eyes on Him and off of themselves. So often I approach worship with the attitude of “what am I getting out of this”. But worship should not be about me. To worship is to adore, love, or show respect. So when I go to worship, who am I adoring, loving and respecting more – myself or God? The earlier church of Acts "had everything in common", and not just physical property but God honoring hearts. I am looking forward to the privilege of experiencing different worship services while in Africa and although different from each other, having the most important thing in common - Jesus Christ. Pray that as we prepare for our trip we will use our times of worship to focus on God and not ourselves to prepare our hearts for this adventure. I can’t wait till we will all be worshipping together in Tanzania and having "everything in common".

Carrie