24 March 2017

LABELS

I've recently been struggling with the idea of what the Church is supposed to look like.  For the most part, I keep coming back to the word; LABEL.
Labels identify outside what the contents are of the inside.  As a child, I recall a commercial that went a little something like this; if you put Libby's Libby's Libby's on the label, label, label, you will like it, like it, like it on the table, table, table.  Those veggies were pretty good too. So the label worked, it did its job. But can we as followers of Christ be termed successful by the definition of label?
Let's see, folks get together and call themselves the church and that's all well and good, BUT lately churches have slapped the wrong label on.
When you ask folks at their Church, you'll hear labels defining identity; such as an Asian church, White church, Black church, Hispanic church, Wesleyan, Armanian, Lutheran, Catholic, Pentecostal, Baptist or what have you.
I can appreciate the desire to be with like minded people who look like me, talk like me, think like me but in my me-ness am I doing my part to actually be the Church? More importantly if my desire is to be the church, than shouldn't my focus be on my need for God and my ability to desire His leading me; my reliance on Him ... Which would make my label Christ?
The only way we as a church can be authentic is to actually represent the label of Christ.  Yes I understand believers come in all shapes and sizes. I understand all can identify with a demographic but is that what a church should be doing?
All these headlines declaring various colors in the Crayola box are being violated, but when we as a church can truly look past the wrapping paper and put on the label of Christ, then we will see a change take place within our hearts, within the walls of our buildings, our communities, our cities, our states, our country, our nations, our world.
The label shouldn't be about age, race, Creed, color, ethnicity ... It's about your identity in Christ and nothing else should matter.

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