An Apprentice

If someone were to ask you: “Where is your church?”  What would your answer be?  It’s where it’s always been – at 2910 West Main Street (across from Taco Bell)!  But, that’s the wrong answer.  Our church is at the NIBCO Plant in Stuarts Draft; our church is at a bridge game in the Pelham neighborhood; our church is at a State Farm Agency on Main Street.  So, the church is anywhere a Christian is.  On Sunday, we gather to worship and praise God; but as soon as worship ends the church hits the road!  We become ambassadors of Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:2)!

Every Christian is a disciple.  Let me say a few words about what it means to be a disciple because at Hope Community Church, we want to be a community of Jesus’ disciples.  But the word disciple has been used a lot and sometimes misunderstood in the time between now and then.  Dallas Willard says, maybe the best way of translating the Greek word for disciple and understanding what it really means is: “Jesus is saying become my apprentice – because an apprentice is someone who wants to learn a craft and says to a master of that craft: I am willing to be with you to learn from you how to do what you do.”  Jesus says, now I’m taking apprentices.  And the craft that I have mastered is life.

But there is a cost to being a disciple.  We have to commit totally to our Master.  And, as disciples/apprentices of Jesus Christ, we must be totally committed to Jesus Christ.  This theme is something that the German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “The Cost of Discipleship.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer learned how steep the cost could be in a Nazi concentration camp where he forfeited his life.  The SS Doctor who witnessed his execution said, “I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”  As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must be entirely submissive to God.  So, when you hit the road each day, look for ways to be true apprentices and ambassadors of Jesus . . . as part of the Church of Jesus Christ!  So, where is your church?

Comfort Care has another hands-on opportunity for Hope Community Church.  On Thursday evening, May 19th, they need a few people to help clean the unpainted rooms. If you would like to participate in this opportunity, please contact Kim Holman know by Monday, May 9th. Thank you!