Let’s Go Bowling!

02 Jun Let’s Go Bowling!

This past Sunday evening, I had the opportunity to go bowling with my Sunday school class.  It was chaos!  I teach a group of 20 & 30 year olds at church and we made this a family event with the little ones bowling with us.  9 of the 33 people with us were under the age of 4.  That makes for an interesting evening, to say the least.  But, you know… I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.  I love these people.  Over the past several months since we formed our class, God has started pulling us together as a group.  We are starting to live our lives in community.

By nature, I am an introvert.  I find renewal in time alone.  Left to my own devices, I might even be a hermit.  However, by God’s grace, He put me with a wife that was just the opposite when we married 22 years ago.  Since that time, we have both moved closer to the middle, but my nature is still to be alone.  The truth is that God didn’t create us to be alone all the time.  He wants us to live our lives in community with other believers  and share in the pain and joy of life.  I would go as far as to say that if you want to live a “Healthy” life, you must connect with others.  God has given us the church, in part, for that reason.  In the church, we are able to laugh together, worship together, pray together, and cry together.  When we are down, there are people there who want to pick you up.  It is the place to be.

Hebrews 10:24-25… And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (HCSB)

People try to substitute all sorts of other groups and organizations for the church.  Part of our design as human beings is a need to gather with like minded people and to share our interests and passions.  The truth is, I follow this same pattern in my own life.  I belong to Marathon Maniacs, Half Fanatics, and train with a group in Taekwondo, not to mention the random Facebook groups that I am connected with.  However, none of these can replace what the church, the body of Christ, can do in our lives.  Let me encourage you to not just have a church so that you can worship and serve.  Find a church where you can connect and say to a bunch of crazy families, “Let’s go bowling!”