Originally posted on Connecting Dots…to God:
Christians, myself included, regularly use words and phrases like church, service, follower of Jesus Christ, shepherd, humility, community and surrender.  Yet, the words, phrases and values that actually animate our (my) behavior are very different.  I observe, and am challenged by, a disconnect between the way we typically do church and the way that Jesus lived and served and gave his life. What if, instead of going to church as the primary activity of Christian faith, we lived to fully express the truth that we are the church? “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”  Romans 12:4-5 Perhaps the term “church service” would take on a new meaning as that which we daily live and do (like a verb phrase) instead of a weekly event that we simply attend (the noun). “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s (or woman’s) gift is prophesying, let…