"This Is Church!"

Those words echo in my mind at this very moment. I just brought to PGH my wife’s Sunday school class, dubbed as the “29/11.” ( No, it’s not new mobile plan or a convenience store. It’s from Jeremiah 29:11.) They will be distributing gifts to young patients in the cancer ward, courtesy of Operation Christmas Child. It was a rainy Thursday morning. On the way we got snarled in traffic. We were running late. Yet, it did not even dampen their excitement. They were so eager to put a smile on the face of a child suffering from the Big C. I could almost hear the Spirit whisper, “THIS is church.”


I first read those words in Bill Hybel’s “Axiom.” Hybels wrote, “Christ said he was going to build ‘his church’—a community of real people with real, beating hearts that would be attentive to each other and responsive to each other and quick to extend mercy and grace and love.”


Our Couples Fellowship will be launching on May 16 the “Managing Your Finances God’s Way” series. This is open to everybody, not just couples, to equip each one of us to thrive and not just survive the challenges of the global financial crisis right where it really hurts—our pockets. We will not just wring our arms, shake our heads and complain how difficult the times are. Together we will face this crisis head on. This IS church.


A month from now, we will have a Sports fest of all worship services of MGC. It’s not just an event for the fastest and the strongest. It’s a momentous event that will happen first time ever in our history as a church. With the battle cry, “One God, One Mission, One MGC,” we will laugh with each other, have fun with one another and enjoy life together.


This Sunday, our Sunday school will dig in MGC 201 (Maturity: Growing in Character) class. Here we will learn how we can grow in grace. This is part of our new curriculum geared towards forming small groups in the church and training people to shepherd those groups. In fact, key leaders in our church are now finalizing the details of the program for a Small Group Summit at the end of the month so we can cast our vision for a church with small groups that care… a church where people will not get lost in the crowd… a church where we can journey together in life as we seek to obey God’s will. This is CHURCH.


I am not asking each one of us just to join a bandwagon. I am calling on all of us to fulfill our calling as a church. Together.

Brethren, this is our church.

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