The seven core beliefs of Christianity (our Doxa) instruct us where to be just as much as they teach us what to know. Do you have this elusive, lingering feeling of being out of place? If so, it might be because the seven core beliefs of Christianity have never moved passed a place of intellectual assent for you. Each week we are going to learn one word that is related to each of the seven core doctrines of Christianity. This one word speaks to a place we are invited into by the respective belief being examined. Today, our core belief is: The Church is Central. This means having a local church to call home should be central to the rhythm of our lives. And my suspicion is that many people left churches with no intention of returning to church because they experienced deep disappointment with a former church. My contention is those disappointments, which we’ve all experienced, might possibly have been viewed in a different light if someone had explained to us disappointment is often God’s way of bringing us to a cross, exposing something in us that needs to die. Have we as Christians, especially Christians in America lost our belief and understanding of the Biblical concept of death and resurrection? We want the Upper Room victory but we forget those emotions of victory, hope, and over-coming come from time in a tomb that began at a cross. Tonight’s message explores this idea: The church of Jesus is where the example of Jesus is lived by the people of Jesus, death before resurrection. And that process of death and resurrection invites us into a place that all of us resist, but the more we run for that place, the more we will feel out of place.
by City Life