It has been a year since the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It shook our way of life to the core. We had to discover new ways of doing the simplest of things.
Our church life was definitely affected. Until this day, we cannot meet face-to-face. We cannot gather for worship services, fellowship, Sunday School and for prayer. We just have to be content on what we can do online.
Would that mean that the church is effectively denatured? Is the local church totally useless and irrelevant nowadays?
Far from it. Nothing can keep the community of Christ’s Kingdom followers from emerging and engaging in His mission. As described in the parables of Jesus, the church will emerge through the most adverse of times. It will be like a seed that falls to the ground and dies. It will one day bud, blossom and bear fruit.
CCBC is a church of Jesus Christ. No pestilence can keep us from His lovingkindness. Though we may be far apart, we can still fulfill our mandate and be the best of how Christ wants us to be.
The NT church emerged in adverse circumstances. It happened at the height of the rejection of Jesus by the Jews. The disciples were hiding not because of a pandemic but because of a large-scale crackdown on the movement that Jesus created.
“CCBC is a church of Jesus Christ. No pestilence can keep us from His lovingkindness. Though we may be far apart, we can still fulfill our mandate and be the best of how Christ wants us to be.”
The church engaged the gospel to the world at that time. They made a difference because of the Holy Spirit’s work among them.
Throughout history, the church has taken different shapes; but it is still the same church—the bride of Christ that was made beautiful by His grace.
We, too, need to take a new shape. CCBC would be a church in the home. We gather with our gadgets on hand as we do our worship services with our household. We engage in watch parties over the preaching of the word with our Life Group.
It is like in the ancient days where a household is gathered to listen to the teaching of the apostles through their letters being read to them, in the catacombs, away from the prying eyes of their persecutors.
The church made a difference then, not as congregations of thousands but of thousands of households of faith moving in obedience to Christ at the direction of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the church today can make the same impact, because the presence of the Holy Spirit in them makes this possible.
This is what CCBC is at this period of time—we are a church@home. We practice being a church with our household and with fellow disciples we call our Life Group.
This series of sermons is aimed at equipping CCBCers to practice being a church@home. It is our prayer that each household, Life Group, or learning group will experience the fullness of being a church as a result of the fullness of Christ in them. This would translate into spiritual growth, effective witness and life change among themselves and to those around them.
