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You must be prepared for the homecoming season
Church in the Community - Media Release in the Herald: 20th November 2023
Source: TCN / Grant Williams
Date Added: 2023-11-20
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General,
Date Added: 2023-11-20
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General,
Homecoming is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as a person arriving home after being away for a long time.
It is also a tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organisation to celebrations.
Since the birth of the early church in the book of Acts (Chapter 2) the Church has changed much in both positive and negative ways.
Many people have different views on church and what the Church is.
Some believe that a church is just a building that we come to once a week to fulfil our religious duties. To others, church has just become an activity on a Sunday. Singing songs and hearing a good message to tick a box.
Post-Covid 19, we have realised that as the Church we had to refine our focus of what God has called us to be.
We have been called to be the Church, and not to just tick a box.
Church cannot be limited to something that we just do religiously. It should be something that we become.
The Church is not a building.
The Church is not an activity.
The Church is a people empowered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When we truly understand the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the power unto salvation (Romans 1:16), we understand that it has power to transform any life, to overcome every challenge and live victoriously (John 10:10).
What we are seeing today is a generation filled with overwhelming fear and anxiety, which struggles with sexual identity, increasingly depends on substances to cope, and is subject to growing incidences of gender-based violence.
With more and more young people committing suicide, there is a great need for more than just church programmes, routines and ticking boxes.
We need to see the power of the Gospel return to the Church to see lasting transformation in a broken society.
I believe that when the Church walks in the unconditional love of Jesus Christ that was displayed by Him laying His life down, we will see the Church walking in power to restore the broken and heal the sick. (Romans 5:8)
We as the Church can no longer use the phrase “just deal with it “and expect people to be freed from their bondage and mistakes.
We must realise that we have the power through the Gospel to walk with people through their failures and mistakes in life.
We must do away with the expectation that people are perfect and infallible but through the grace of God, He empowers us to live beyond our shortcomings.
Grace is not the license to live a reckless life. Grace is empowerment for righteous living. It means being in right standing with God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Love through patience
My experience as a young adult leader of young people is that we must listen to what they are not saying.
Some hide behind loud voices. Some hide behind silence and some just live with a facade projecting they are fine.
I have learned that patience plays a big role walking with someone who has challenges. As leaders we often always feel the need to say something rather than to listen. Let’s listen more!
Love through relationship
As a leader it is important that we place a high value on building relationships with others.
Through His life on the earth, Jesus modelled a perfect way for us to disciple and journey with people.
When Jesus called His disciples to Himself, it was more than just what He called them to do. More important was who they become.
In John 15:15 Jesus says to His disciples that He now calls them friends and no longer servants meaning that their relationship with Jesus grew stronger and deeper.
Jesus knew that through relationship He would be able to disciple, impact and empower His friends more effectively than them just being servants.
Relationship over instructions!
Love through pain and loss
September 2022 was the most painful season of my life after my dad passed away on a hiking trip in Namibia.
It was a sudden tragedy, and I experienced first-hand the power of being loved through my pain by the church community around me who were there every step of the way.
When I did not feel like praying, they prayed they stood in the gap for me and my family.
The power of healthy community is what our society so desperately needs.
We must be conscious of the fact that loving people through their and hurt may not just save their lives, but the lives of their families too.
We are on the cusp of one of the greatest “homecoming” seasons, where many will not just return to church, but come back to God.
This homecoming will be ushered in by a Church filled with compassion and a desire to see restoration take place.
In Matthew (9:36) and (14:14), Jesus says transformative power flows through the doorway of compassion for the broken, the hurt, the sick and the distressed.
The power of the parable of the prodigal son is that while he was on his way home, his father was waiting for him.
God the Father is waiting in expectation for the homecoming of His sons and daughters.
The church has this beautiful responsibility to bring them back to the Father.
We are ready for the harvest. We are ready for the homecoming season!
Grant Williams
Young Adult Leader: Ebenezer International
It is also a tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organisation to celebrations.
Since the birth of the early church in the book of Acts (Chapter 2) the Church has changed much in both positive and negative ways.
Many people have different views on church and what the Church is.
Some believe that a church is just a building that we come to once a week to fulfil our religious duties. To others, church has just become an activity on a Sunday. Singing songs and hearing a good message to tick a box.
Post-Covid 19, we have realised that as the Church we had to refine our focus of what God has called us to be.
We have been called to be the Church, and not to just tick a box.
Church cannot be limited to something that we just do religiously. It should be something that we become.
The Church is not a building.
The Church is not an activity.
The Church is a people empowered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When we truly understand the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the power unto salvation (Romans 1:16), we understand that it has power to transform any life, to overcome every challenge and live victoriously (John 10:10).
What we are seeing today is a generation filled with overwhelming fear and anxiety, which struggles with sexual identity, increasingly depends on substances to cope, and is subject to growing incidences of gender-based violence.
With more and more young people committing suicide, there is a great need for more than just church programmes, routines and ticking boxes.
We need to see the power of the Gospel return to the Church to see lasting transformation in a broken society.
I believe that when the Church walks in the unconditional love of Jesus Christ that was displayed by Him laying His life down, we will see the Church walking in power to restore the broken and heal the sick. (Romans 5:8)
We as the Church can no longer use the phrase “just deal with it “and expect people to be freed from their bondage and mistakes.
We must realise that we have the power through the Gospel to walk with people through their failures and mistakes in life.
We must do away with the expectation that people are perfect and infallible but through the grace of God, He empowers us to live beyond our shortcomings.
Grace is not the license to live a reckless life. Grace is empowerment for righteous living. It means being in right standing with God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Love through patience
My experience as a young adult leader of young people is that we must listen to what they are not saying.
Some hide behind loud voices. Some hide behind silence and some just live with a facade projecting they are fine.
I have learned that patience plays a big role walking with someone who has challenges. As leaders we often always feel the need to say something rather than to listen. Let’s listen more!
Love through relationship
As a leader it is important that we place a high value on building relationships with others.
Through His life on the earth, Jesus modelled a perfect way for us to disciple and journey with people.
When Jesus called His disciples to Himself, it was more than just what He called them to do. More important was who they become.
In John 15:15 Jesus says to His disciples that He now calls them friends and no longer servants meaning that their relationship with Jesus grew stronger and deeper.
Jesus knew that through relationship He would be able to disciple, impact and empower His friends more effectively than them just being servants.
Relationship over instructions!
Love through pain and loss
September 2022 was the most painful season of my life after my dad passed away on a hiking trip in Namibia.
It was a sudden tragedy, and I experienced first-hand the power of being loved through my pain by the church community around me who were there every step of the way.
When I did not feel like praying, they prayed they stood in the gap for me and my family.
The power of healthy community is what our society so desperately needs.
We must be conscious of the fact that loving people through their and hurt may not just save their lives, but the lives of their families too.
We are on the cusp of one of the greatest “homecoming” seasons, where many will not just return to church, but come back to God.
This homecoming will be ushered in by a Church filled with compassion and a desire to see restoration take place.
In Matthew (9:36) and (14:14), Jesus says transformative power flows through the doorway of compassion for the broken, the hurt, the sick and the distressed.
The power of the parable of the prodigal son is that while he was on his way home, his father was waiting for him.
God the Father is waiting in expectation for the homecoming of His sons and daughters.
The church has this beautiful responsibility to bring them back to the Father.
We are ready for the harvest. We are ready for the homecoming season!
Grant Williams
Young Adult Leader: Ebenezer International
Source: TCN / Grant Williams
Date Added: 2023-11-20
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General,
Back to News IndexDate Added: 2023-11-20
Category: General News, TCN News, Issues - General,
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