Speaker: Jerry Cisar | Book: Acts

Speaker: Jerry Cisar

This Sunday we are birthing a church, so to speak, as we send out a church plant right here in St. Petersburg. We are also saying so long to friends, family, and a pastor. What is this thing we call “church”? Why do we make so much of it?

Stanley Hauerwas, speaking at the funeral of his pastor, recalled a comment this pastor had frequently made: “I could not have thought the church up. I could not have imagined church.” What did this pastor mean? The church is something that God thought up. In fact, the church, whether it is Gulf Coast Community Church or any other local church around the globe, is a miracle.

It takes a miracle for people of different backgrounds, ways of speaking, economic standing, political philosophies, and likes and dislikes to come together in order to do life together in a common cause. It takes a miracle for young people to care about the needs of the older and for older to care about the needs of the younger (rather than just complain about each other!). It takes a miracle for the rich to care about the poor, and the poor to care about those with wealth.

The church birthed on Pentecost was a miracle. It was a miraculous creation… a miraculous new creation.

Handout: http://media.gccc.net/2019/01/20190106.pdf