Alternative Community

What do you comes to mind when you think of Church?

It could be many different things:  music, worship, dressing in Sunday best, something you have to do, an hour to snooze, rigid, fake, peaceful, family, hypocrisy, money, prayer, Christ, celebration, inspiring, growing, fulfilling, buildings, and we could go on and on.  You may have positive or negative thoughts about the Church.

Do you ever think of it as an alternative community?  

When we say alternative community, we mean a place that is different from the rest of the world.  A group of people who are very much in this world, yet very much not of it.  Many groups have tried to form alternative communities throughout history, the majority of them not as Christians.  These would be what we'd call communes or the hippie movement.  You get the picture.  

However, the Church was always designed to be an alternative community.  When it is being true to Jesus's Call for it on earth, it is living as an alternative community by the power of the Holy Spirit.  A place that is different from this world, that functions as the family of Christ, leads people to Christ, and goes out into all the world for Christ.  Now, the question is:  is the Church living out this mission?  Are we as the people of Bellwether?  

Sunday, we'll conclude the series:  Alternate Reality, life by the Spirit.  Last week we talked about how that reality affected relationships.  This Sunday we'll talk about how it affects the Church.  The message will be:  Church as an "alternative community":  what this looks like and how to be one.  We hope you'll be with us to see what Jesus is calling us to as His people.  We hope you'll be part of His alternative community on earth - one that can change your life, the lives of people you know, and the world for Him.