What makes a church any different from any club or group of like-minded people – is a community of faith any different than a gathering of the PTA, Rotary Club, Book of the Month Club, a Star Trek convention? Aren’t these all just assemblies of folks who happen to share the desire to connect around a common interest or hobby? Some folks like to scrapbook, church people just like to do the church thing?
I feel a little sickened even writing that paragraph. The church is not like these or any other assemblies. The church is God’s people, united in the bond of love by the Holy Spirit of God. We aren’t just an assembly sharing common interests or backgrounds (you won’t find a more diverse and disparate bunch than those who assemble in worship on Sunday morning); we are God’s people and we come together to worship, glorify, honor and serve him.
What unites us is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. He lives in us, teaches us, guides us, gifts us, empowers us. All Christians who are really Christians have the Holy Spirit (though some make it really difficult to notice!). Where the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit is – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. God lives in us. The consistent core at Mt. Pleasant has born the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit. Not always and not perfectly, but consistently.
We’re a Holy Spirit community. That doesn’t mean we have folks being slain in the Spirit, or speaking in tongues, or dancing in the aisles necessarily. It does mean that in this community of faith God is present. It’s not just a miscellaneous assembly of like-minded folks. It is God’s people gathered to do God’s work. It is God’s Spirit bearing fruit for his glory.
