Today I will preach at the Iglesia de Cristo Kennedy (a church in Colonia Kennedy in Tegucigalpa). This church has a great story to tell–moving from meeting in a school to its own building, now with the building remodeled. The church exhibits enthusiasm and a bright future.
The church must never forget its identity. The church is forged in an awareness of God’s nature, God’s purpose, God’s power, and God’s plan for the church and for the world. The church is the presence of God, the fullness of Christ. The purpose of God, reflected in the word of God and secured by God’s promise sealed with God’s Spirit, must always guide the church. The church must not seek its own purposes. The church must not cave in to the desires of the world in order to attract more people. The church must be what God calls it to be–hope and richness and power in this world, the fullness of Christ.
The church, and individual members of the church, have access to God’s power–the same power which operated in Christ and his resurrection, a power that now functions in the lives of God’s people and resurrects a new creation out of hopelessness and emptiness. We forget so easily. What we were is no longer–we are what we could never have imagined or hoped by our own power. May God’s people find renewal in the challenge and power of being the fullness of Christ in this world.