Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Hub

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  Ephesians 4:11-12

Did you know that the world is marked by 3 sequential letters?  My 2013 started a 6-day trek that took me from LAX to IAD (Washington DC) to ADD (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) to FIH (Kinshasa, DRC). 48 hours later, having secured “The Package” (our 4-year-old Joella) we flew FIH to IST (Istanbul, Turkey) to MUC (Munich) to SFO.  Whew!  I am tired just writing that!

Among other great lessons I learned from my 6-day, 21,395 mile trek, I learned something invaluable about the church.  What airports are to planes, the church is for followers of Jesus.  Let me explain.

Planes weren’t created for airports; they were created for travel, for 30,000 foot altitude, for 500+ miles per hour speeds, for taking people and cargo somewhere. Airports are invaluable; however, to airplanes the airport is there so that planes are fueled, cleaned, repaired, and equipped for their journey, in order to do what planes were created for.

Just as airports are essential to airplanes and are marked by three letters, PCC is essential for our body of Christ. Sundays are our time as a body to gather, be equipped, be encouraged, be fueled, repaired, and aligned and then to leave the hub to continue on our God-designed journeys.

That imagery is transforming my view of our gatherings, and I would hope it does the same for you.  Come hungry, come hurting, come just as you are but understand that PCC is not the destination.  Whether our gathering is on Sunday, midweek, at our All Church Retreat in May or even at a memorial, we gather for perspective, Holy Spirit fuel, connection, repair and encouragement as we are heading to our destination. 

Just as there was no direct flight from Los Angeles to Kinshasa, there is no direct flight to heaven; we need hubs where we can layover and then get on with our trek.  The leadership at PCC works hard and prays harder that we can serve everyone well who gathers at the PCC hub for whatever reason.
 
Let’s never forget that at the end of the day, we are about People being changed by God’s love and communities being changed through God’s people.  If you call PCC home, please prioritize our gatherings and come prayed up ready to both be encouraged and to serve, but realize also that PCC gatherings are not the destination. They are the hub for your ultimate destination, which is Jesus in eternity. 

This Sunday I am so encouraged at the thought of gathering together.  I will be in Luke 18:18-27 and we will look at an amazing encounter between Jesus and a rich, young ruler.  I look forward to being together.  See you at the hub!

I love being your pastor!