"Well-Sent"
There are many things I ponder in the middle of the night. A familiar pondering is why the early church in the Book of Acts multiplied exponentially? The Gospel hit the ground and the Holy Spirit could not be contained! I look at the world around me and at at its core are dehydrated souls in need of streams of living water. Water that restores and renews the human heart with the nourishing redemptive work of Christ. I think about this alot! I look beyond political discourse and dividing lines and see a deeper desire and thirst of the weary soul in need of streams of living water.
The mission of the local church has never changed. From the moment Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations”Matthew 28:19, the church was commissioned to move, to send, to bear witness to life transformed by Christ. The church was never meant to be a feeding trough or water-hole where people gather only to consume. It was meant to be a river alive, moving, life-giving.
A feeding trough or water-hole serves a purpose, but only for a moment. It is a place of nourishment not output. When believers gather week after week to receive teaching, worship, and encouragement without being sent into the world, something subtle happens. Spiritual life begins to stagnate. And we know what happens to stagnant water; it breeds decay, not life.
Scripture consistently uses the imagery of water to describe the life of God among His people. In Ezekiel’s vision, water flows from the temple and becomes a river so deep it cannot be crossed, bringing life wherever it goes: “Where the river flows everything will live” Ezekiel 47:9. The temple was never meant to contain the water, it released it.
Jesus echoed this same truth when He said, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” John 7:38.
Notice the direction. Living water flows from the believer, not merely to them. The church becomes stagnant when it forgets that it exists for those who are not yet there. When worship ends at the benediction instead of beginning at the sending. When faith is reduced to personal comfort instead of public witness. A church that only feeds inward will eventually lose its appetite for the world God so loves.
By contrast, a church that moves, like a river or a roaring ocean, carries life with it. It brings hope into broken spaces, light into dark places, and love into weary hearts. It testifies not only with words, but with lives visibly transformed. It understands that nourishment is not the end goal; obedience is.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once warned, “The church is the church only when it exists for others.” The measure of our faith is not how much we know, but how faithfully we go. Not how much we consume, but how willingly we are sent.
The question for the church today is not whether it is well-fed, but whether it is well-sent. Are we content to gather around a trough and water-hole, or are we willing to step into the current of God’s mission? The world does not need another stagnant pool of religious activity. It needs the living water of Christ flowing through His people.
May we be a church that moves. A river that carries life. An ocean that roars with the witness of resurrection.
Just a little something to think about! Lets talk more about this on iovercome Podcast on Thursday!
The mission of the local church has never changed. From the moment Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations”Matthew 28:19, the church was commissioned to move, to send, to bear witness to life transformed by Christ. The church was never meant to be a feeding trough or water-hole where people gather only to consume. It was meant to be a river alive, moving, life-giving.
A feeding trough or water-hole serves a purpose, but only for a moment. It is a place of nourishment not output. When believers gather week after week to receive teaching, worship, and encouragement without being sent into the world, something subtle happens. Spiritual life begins to stagnate. And we know what happens to stagnant water; it breeds decay, not life.
Scripture consistently uses the imagery of water to describe the life of God among His people. In Ezekiel’s vision, water flows from the temple and becomes a river so deep it cannot be crossed, bringing life wherever it goes: “Where the river flows everything will live” Ezekiel 47:9. The temple was never meant to contain the water, it released it.
Jesus echoed this same truth when He said, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” John 7:38.
Notice the direction. Living water flows from the believer, not merely to them. The church becomes stagnant when it forgets that it exists for those who are not yet there. When worship ends at the benediction instead of beginning at the sending. When faith is reduced to personal comfort instead of public witness. A church that only feeds inward will eventually lose its appetite for the world God so loves.
By contrast, a church that moves, like a river or a roaring ocean, carries life with it. It brings hope into broken spaces, light into dark places, and love into weary hearts. It testifies not only with words, but with lives visibly transformed. It understands that nourishment is not the end goal; obedience is.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once warned, “The church is the church only when it exists for others.” The measure of our faith is not how much we know, but how faithfully we go. Not how much we consume, but how willingly we are sent.
The question for the church today is not whether it is well-fed, but whether it is well-sent. Are we content to gather around a trough and water-hole, or are we willing to step into the current of God’s mission? The world does not need another stagnant pool of religious activity. It needs the living water of Christ flowing through His people.
May we be a church that moves. A river that carries life. An ocean that roars with the witness of resurrection.
Just a little something to think about! Lets talk more about this on iovercome Podcast on Thursday!
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