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Last night was our first in-person church service at Parr Street for 5 months. We couldn't sing/chat/have communion, we could only see half-faces over masks, had designated seats and in a building that before lockdown regularly held upwards of 120 people, only 30 could come. 1/8
It was so special. We listened to God's Word read&preached, prayed, listened to a song of worship to him & did it in the same physical space, we saw each other as we did it. Some people are saying that while Christians have spent 2000 years saying the church is not a building 2/8
now suddenly we're freaking out about not being able to meet in our buildings. I don't think that's true, at least not from anyone I've listened to/read. It doesn't matter that we can't meet in 'our' buildings, it just matters that we can't meet. 3/8
Admittedly, I'm not speaking from experience, but I'm pretty sure that when a part of the body is cut off, it hurts! So when the parts of the body which is our local church are cut off from each other, it hurts. Ask any Christian who's house-bound. 4/8
It doesn't matter where we meet but it does matter that we meet. Online/on paper (some of our members have no internet&get transcripts) can be a great substitute for when that's not possible&I pray I'd be a better pray-er for my brothers&sisters for whom it's never possible. 5/8
But when it is possible...Even though we were only 30, there were different genders & ages, nationalities & ethnicities, social classes & marital statuses. And we were there together as family because we all love the one God, who has promised to help us keep going 6/8
till the day he takes us home to be with him forever. As broken as she is all the time and as strange as she appears as she meets in the only way that she can right now, what a beautiful thing is the local church. And how much greater and more beautiful is the God 7/8
who chose to set his love on her. I cannot imagine how wonderful it will be when the whole Church, across history and geography, is physically together seeing Jesus face-to-face. May that day be soon. 8/8
I wrote this on Monday but it took me so long to turn it into a thread that I had to post it today #threadnewbie #twincompetent 9/8
