Here is the Church...See All the People

Do you remember the nursery rhyme we said as kids or may have said to our kids?

"Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people."

At first the fingers are clasped tightly shut, the steeple appears with outstretched fingers and the thumbs open to make a doorway to "see all the people."

As Christians we know the church isn't a physical place with a steeple, but it is in fact made up of the people of God. The Christians or Christ's church are all part of His body, of which He is head. Church in fact means, called out ones. Called out to be different and set apart from the world. We are called out as saints to assemble as the body of Christ upon the first day of the week and hence the phrase, "going to church" is formed. I'm not calling anyone out on that. I say it often. But in all reality we are attending a church service, a place for the church, the body of believers in Christ to meet and worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So to do that we have to open the doors to see all of the people. Yes, I could use this as an exhortation of sorts to not forsake the assembling of the Saints as Hebrews commands us, I could encourage us to all join together as much as possible, to first and foremost worship the Lord and fellowship with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I do wish that for all of us.

But in this particular writing I want to emphasize the church body itself, all of the people we see when we open the doors and enter in.

The loss of a dear brother in Christ has elicited emotions within me and has prompted this writing. His love and influence on our little local church in Choctaw, Oklahoma was astounding. His love for Christ and others is commendable. His loss is great!

The thing is, he was one of those people you saw every time you opened the doors to that church building until he got sick. He was an important part of that body of Christ. He lead singing, gave communion talks, devotionals, lead prayers, taught Bible classes, shook everyone's hand, always had a smile, or a joke to crack and if he gave you a hard time, you knew he liked you. Let's just say we had quite the repertoire with one another. He truly knew what it meant to be a brother in Christ. He loved the youth at the church, teaching many a middle school class, building relationships with them. He and my daughter had quite the relationship. They often called each other ornery and he became known as the ornery old man. Many told me many great stories that their children had with him as well, after his passing.

Ron Rowland left a void in this church when he got ill and could no longer attend and with

his eventual passing. He will be greatly missed. But the thing I love about this church is it has many other great people to fill that void. We need more men like Ron to step up lead and build relationships with our youth and our fellow Christians.

The church is still here, we may not have a steeple, but the people are still here. The people who need to be nurtured and loved and have some other good members leave an impression on the church like this great man. All we have to do is open the doors and see all the people.