The Strength of the Pack
Dear friends of HBC,
I read a quote recently that caught my attention. The English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist Rudyard Kipling said “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack”. Perhaps the same can be said about the church? “For the strength of the church is the believer and the strength of the believer is the church”.
What does this mean for you and me? The spiritual strength of HBC is dependent upon you, and your spiritual strength is dependent upon HBC. If you think about this for very long your mind starts to go in circles. It can be a bit confusing, right? Yet as we have often heard “God works backwards – If you want to be first, you must be last; In order to live, you must die; If you want to get, you must give, etc.”
At another church I overheard a conversation and one person said “I don’t get anything out of church”. I wanted to interrupt and ask “Well, what are you putting into it?!” Church life is a dance, it cannot always be “get, get, get”. Sometimes we need to “give, give, give” but many times it’s simply a little bit of both. The church is only as strong as you are and you are only as strong as the church is.
So, may I gently challenge you? It’s no secret to anyone that church attendance drops during the summer. People take well-earned vacations or they simply have other plans throughout the summer. Hey, I get it. Sometimes I’d rather be other places on a beautiful Sunday morning too! But perhaps you might ask yourself this question, “How strong is HBC when I’m not there and is it fair of me to anticipate that the church will meet my needs and expectations when I return?”
In a perfect world we would all be in church on Sunday mornings, but that is not reality. What is reality however is that we are stronger as individuals and as a church when we are together. For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack. That’s true for churches, too.
Peace & Grace,
Dan
Categories: Pastors Message