Every week I have the privilege of watching courageous people give their lives for a cause. They are normal people tucked away almost out of sight. They are not fighting to be famous, they are not the center of attention at gatherings, and they do not capture headlines. They do lead groups, work with youth, teach children, hand out food, serve tables, cook dinners, work in a community garden, fix the home of an aging saint, give money to the hurting, and this is but a few of the countless things that could be said. Many are their weekly good works, scarce is their notoriety.  

Why do they so give their hearts and lives? Easy. They possess an unrelenting conviction in God’s purpose and divine cause. Somehow each of these people is captured by God’s heart of love; they are gripped with heavenly desire. They esteem each other, are truthful with themselves and have the ability to remain welded together. God has simply called them “church.”

Over the years, I have listened to people ridicule this God group. Their most common accusation — “bunch of hypocrites.” This has not been my experience; instead I have found them to be committed people, lovers of others, quick to help, unfathomable with compassion, tolerant, outrageously loving of people who live their life free of moral constraint, quick to admit their sin and seek God’s mercy, ready to go again when they have fallen, believers in what God is seeking to accomplish in the world, giving to a fault, esteeming leadership, honestly seeking for answers, remaining constantly committed to Christ’s community, and they are making a huge difference in the world.

Within the true fellowship is the narrow, insecure, disloyal critic who is either secretly indulging or publicly pointing the finger. They sit among the genuine fellowship because the genuine fellowship is hoping that by some miracle of God they too will find Him who changes everything. Make no mistake, they are not the fellowship; they are on loan from hell, heaven all the time hoping they will be saved.

I have been at this over thirty years and I have been honored to pastor some of the most amazing saints imaginable. I wish I could tell each of their stories, for their lives are holy and worth the attention. They believe in something noble, they are building a revolutionary community that changes the world little by little, not by showing off its power but by bringing God’s life to earth until God’s life, the life of His Son, has swallowed up all of this death we experience down here. Many of them are now scattered over the earth and engaged in other fellowships, but never doubt it, they are world changers, souls that should not be ridiculed, for they carry in them the hope of the world—Christ living in His church.