The life that Christians are called to live is a life of grace from beginning to end. That is, we depend upon Christ's strength as we seek to honor him with obedience, but we also look to him for forgiveness when we’ve been
dis-obedient instead. And through all of those ups and downs, falls and rises, for the rest of our lives, Christ himself is at work in us by his Word and Spirit, changing us so that we’re more and more like him. That’s good news too: Jesus doesn’t leave us as we are!
Called to worship
Worshipping God is at the heart of our calling in Christ. As our Creator and Redeemer, God is worthy that we set aside time to acknowledge who he is and what he’s done for us. We do this throughout the week whenever we take time individually and in our families to read the Bible and pray about what we find there. We also do this as a church on Sunday mornings when we gather for the worship service. Thankfully God hasn’t left us guessing about what he wants of us in that service! The same Bible that calls us to worship also teaches us that there should be singing and praying, the preaching of his Word and the administration of the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and the giving of offerings. That’s what you can expect every time you join us on Sunday.
All to God's glory
Taking time to worship God is at the heart of the Christian life, but it isn't the
whole of that life. In fact, everything we do, we're called to do to the glory of God. That includes the whole spectrum of responsibilities and relationships and recreations that fill our lives: work and play, music and sports, teaching and learning, gardening and traveling, cooking and eating, family ties, close friendships, community associations—you name it! Becoming a Christian doesn't mean checking out on the best this world has to offer. Actually, it's just the opposite: one of the ways we seek to honor our Savior is by experiencing and displaying the wonder of what human life can be.
A key distinction
Here it's helpful to notice a key distinction between the responsibilities of individual Christians and those of the church as an institution. The church’s mandate is limited in scope: Christ has established it as a spiritual body with a spiritual mission accomplished by spiritual means—declaring the Word so that people can come to faith in Christ and grow in him together. The church as an institution has no business (and no expertise) getting involved in politics and other purely earthly concerns. But individual Christians, those who have embraced that Word by faith, are then called to go out into the world and seek to honor their Savior in every corner of human experience, in every realm of human endeavor, in every aspect of what it means to be human in the world. It’s precisely that well-rounded Christian living on the part of Jesus’ disciples that bears witness to him, along with the words that we speak about his person and work.
