Tag Archives: church

The Global Church as Family

by Christina Fox, in category Community, Uncategorized

Almost ten years ago, when I moved to South Africa, I had no idea how much of an impact this place would have on me. One of the greatest impacts on me is the value the African culture places on the family, as well as community. You see this in the way they sacrifice for one another. You see this in their sense of togetherness. And you see it in the way they come together and celebrate one another for special occasions, especially weddings. It is a community wide event, not just in attending the ceremony, but also in putting the event together. On that special day, hundreds of people come to celebrate the bride and groom.

That’s because their community is like a family. And in a similar way, so is the church.

The Body of Christ

In 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, Paul compares the church to the human body. He begins with “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.” Paul illustrates that while a body has a head, eyes, ears, etc. all those parts belong to the same body. So it is with the global church; there are many members scattered throughout the globe, but our oneness in Christ makes us family….

E-110 Our Light and Life: Identity in the Claims of Christ with Becky Kiern

by Cami Summers, in category Bible Study, Discipleship, God's Word, Identity, Podcast, Theology, Womanhood
 Our Light and Life: Identity in the Claims of Christ with Becky Kiern We live in a culture that is constantly bombarding our hearts and minds with images that could shape our identities. Join Becky Kiern and Karen Hodge as they look at the I AM statements of Christ and how studying them can give… Read More

E-109 Spreading the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth with Davinia Young

by Cami Summers, in category Bible Study, Discipleship, Evangelism, God's Word, Podcast, Theology, Womanhood
Spreading the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth with Davinia Young God's kingdom is bigger than big! Join Davinia Young and Karen Hodge as they discuss how God is at work in the Global Church and how we can seek to be more missional in our everyday lives.   About the Speaker: Davinia Young… Read More

E-108 The Big Story Shapes All of Life – Consummation with Chandra Oliver

by Cami Summers, in category Bible Study, Discipleship, God's Word, Identity, Podcast, Theology, Womanhood
The Big Story Shapes All of Life - Consummation with Chandra Oliver Ever wonder how having a heavenly perspective can really impact your earthly reality? Join Chandra Oliver and Karen Hodge as they wrap up the Big Story Shapes all of Life Series by focusing on the Consummation.   About the Speaker: Chandra Oliver Chandra… Read More

Remembering in Community

by Christina Fox, in category Community

We live by catchphrases such as , the past is the past; it happened so long ago; forget and move on. They are go-to sayings intended to shift us from a state of wallowing, ruminating, and circling the same mental track. We favor and praise them because they aid us in leaving behind regrettable, undesired experiences. So when I read the Apostle Paul’s prescription to remember in Ephesians 2:11-12 as I participated in the  Hinged Bible Study on the book of Ephesians, I found myself struggling to register its importance.

Why are we to remember the former life when later, Paul instructs us to put off the old self?[1] Furthermore, is remembering up to the individual or is remembering to be done in the context of community?

Let us first consider the why.

Why We Remember

Chapter 2 begins by reviewing our history— you were, you once walked, we all once lived— before pivoting in verse 4 with an emphatic, “But God” statement and  pointing our attention to the source, reason, and purpose of our redemption. The walk down memory lane is not to elicit guilt or shame but to glory in the difference the gospel makes. God’s “rich mercy” and “great love” “made us alive together with Christ” and “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”[2]

The purpose for remembering is also so that we would stand firm in the finished work of the blood of Christ; his blood brought us who were once far off near (verse 13) and inducted us from strangers and aliens to citizens (verse 19). Furthermore, our stories of how we came to be are to be remembered— and remembered viscerally.

In the 2006 film Amazing Grace, the British abolitionist William Wilberforce, seizes an opportune moment to capture the imagination and conscious of elite Londoners. They are gathered aboard a cruise ship and pass Madagascar, a slave ship. As they near it, they are repulsed by a putrid foul smell that Wilberforce names as “the smell of death.” When they try to filter the stench with their handkerchief and hands, Wilberforce confronts them. He says, “Breath in it. Breath it deeply. … Remember that smell. Remember the Madagascar. Remember that God made men equal.”

Remembering is not limited to fond, feel good, celebratory moments but also to those that cause disbelief, grief, and even horror so that we have no appetite for the desires that lead us astray from God and to death…

E-104 The Big Story Shapes All of Life – From Garden to Glory with Courtney Doctor

by Cami Summers, in category Bible Study, Discipleship, God's Word, Identity, Podcast, Theology, Womanhood
The Big Story Shapes All of Life - From Garden to Glory with Courtney Doctor In the middle of a chaotic world and personal pain, many wonder how life is supposed to all fit together. Join Courtney Doctor and and host Karen Hodge as they begin a new series on how The Big Story Shapes… Read More

What’s a White Church Lady to Do?

by Christina Fox, in category Racial Reconciliation

I’m no expert on race relations. Far from it. But I am experienced in messing up when it comes to race.

As a white woman who spent most of her life in Mississippi, I should have been prepared for God to expose some blind spots. After all, for years He’s continually peeled back layer after layer of how I selfishly see the world around me. First, He started by letting me see other people at all. When I was young, He pointed out the girl who did not quite fit in at elementary school. As a shy adult, I felt Him urge me to go up to a church visitor and introduce myself. After I recently moved to another state, He forced me to be the new person, understanding what it feels like to be unsure of social cues, blushing when I stood alone at a church event, or dreading more small talk while hoping it would yield a friend I could share a cup of coffee with.

Lately God is peeling back another layer, showing me how I don’t love my black neighbors well.

Wanting to Help

Weeks ago, I watched the news of George Floyd. I heard the helicopters swirling over nearby protest marches. News like his death had bothered me before, yet those stories seemed to be just that, stories that happened “somewhere else.” The coverage of George Floyd’s death felt different. Instead of my usual reaction of thinking wow, that’s terrible or talking about it with my husband after work, I felt restless and like I should do something. But I didn’t know what.

God gently peeled back to the next layer of sin—my lack of empathy. He convicted me to check in on my black friends. And, I felt ashamed I did not have many black friends to check on. One friend was back in Mississippi. We had served together in church ministry. After I moved to Texas, she checked on me if she heard of fires or storms happening in my new home state. I asked myself now, why was I not checking on her in the wake of all this?

Our friendship had included talking about race in how we did church ministry, but I had not connected the dots of thinking of her in context of the national news. As a mother of a black son. A wife of a black man. The things I would do for any friend— call, text, write, give space to process, make banana bread for— did not occur to me as it would if my same black friend had suffered a miscarriage, gotten a cancer diagnosis, or lost her mother. I did not understand how the knee on George Floyd affected my friends of color. I was a fool for not seeing it. It would be unloving to not reach out.

Then, I went to fear. What to say? What if I made things worse? I had not read enough books about race in the church. I regretted my failure to educate myself, and I felt painfully unprepared to love my black friends….