2005-01-16 We Are The Church - 1 - Meaningful Membership

Am I part of the church or just attending an institution? What shapes my life more—what I believe or what I care about? Setting aside encrusted traditions that prevent hearing God—like the Baptist deacon embarrassed by Jesus making wine or the Adventist declaring "two wrongs don't make a right" about Jesus picking corn on Sabbath—discover why the church's essence is being a living organism rather than human organization. Learn how Christians are twice-born with God's eternal life animating them as the body of Christ, completely dependent on Him and each other within spiritual ecosystems just as physical life requires interconnected systems for food, heat, and medicine. This message reveals why what you care about shapes you more than what you believe, and why cross, baptism, and communion all center on death—trading your small temporary life for God's big eternal life.