The other day, I was taught a great greeting! "Jesus, who is in me, greets Jesus, who is in you!" It's such a blessing to get together with all of you who have Christ living inside of you.

Last week, I had my hair cut and a few people noticed. Sid was among them. One lady said, as soon as she noticed, "Oh, Pastor. That's very nice!" I was very happy to hear that. I believe that those who have Jesus inside of them can notice every change in others, for they care so much.

I encountered one book: 'The Key to a Healthy Church'. It was about a certain church, in the United States, that started with a very small number of people, but with God's blessings over a million people gathered there for each worship service.

As you know, 'a Church is a congregation of people that have become a family together because of the blood of Jesus.' Though, in this world, we are not usually relatives, in Christ, we are each made a part of Christ's body of believers. Read verse 5. We used to be strangers before, not knowing each other, but through the forgiveness of God, we now belong to the 'public' Church; Christ's body.

Being situated in Shimomunakata, our church, Chapel Noah, is called "that church" by people living in this neighbourhood. But, when they get interested in Chapel Noah, they begin to call it "this church", and when they visit Chapel Noah and become members, they call it "our church". In the book, 'The Key to a Healthy Church', the author and pastor, Dick Orlen, mentioned that quite a lot of Christians move from church to church, according to their own needs, not knowing what it truly is to be a Christian. The word 'membership' has its origin in Christianity. True, in our church, there were and are people who wander between churches. One of them once said to me, "A pastor said to me that if I continue moving from church to church, I would be a wanderer." She was very upset at this prospect. But, now we can't find her at Chapel Noah. It's God's guidance to be led into the church that you are at right now. We can't leave our family just because we have decided that we don't like it. Whether or not you like your family, it is your family! We all have different personalities, and characters. We are talented, or gifted differently, too! People who work differently belong to the body (church) and can work perfectly and be healthy. Various people have come to Chapel Noah and have left. They might have had their own reason for doing so, but I believe that we are also to be blamed. We all need to know that we belong to this church. [Not only so-and-so and so-and-so, but we all belong to it.]

According to Rev. Orlen's book, there are several 'check points' we need to be aware of in order to successfully build up a healthy church. All the people in the church need to know that they are accepted by the rest of the church. It is necessary for us all to know whether others have an interest in us, or whether we can fulfill a need in others. Just like knowing that God needs you, if a church needs you, and you can find it, it would be really helpful to you to know that you really belong to that church.

Only healthy people offer 'health' to the sick. Unless our church is healthy, we can't offer people salvation, or the solution they need to the difficulties they face in this world. The privilege and duty that we share is to be witnesses of the salvation given to us by God.

Translated by Junko Okamoto - Edited for the Net by Shido
For another sermon see: Oita Evangelical Christ Church
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