The Church and it's calling

I went to church today, just as I always do. I have been going since I was born which is practically about 19 years now. But why do I go? What is the purpose of church? Why do we go to church? Is it to see our friends? Is it to be able to have fellowship with other believers? Is it to learn more about the Word of God? Is it to worship our Creator? All these things are absolutely essential to the Church, however, after the service today, I have realized that we have missed the mark. We have missed the true purpose and vision that the Church has been called by God to possess. What is this that I speak of? My college minister explained it quite well this morning. He has a neighbor named Jose. He knows that Jose does not know the Lord. He used to spend time with Jose and just have casual conversations with him and love on him. However, in the past year, his responsibilities at church have caused him to neglect his time with Jose. He admitted this morning that he hasn't talked to Jose in probably about six months. What I speak of is loving those who do not know him. That is what the Church has neglected. We have focused so much on nurturing and equipping those who already know about the matchless, extravagant love of Jesus Christ, and we have completely ignored those who really need his love. That is simply those who do not know him. As my college minisiter said, we have focused more on growing the church instead of growing the kingdom. We think by just adding another service or Bible study that we can get people to come when the truth of the matter is people aren't going to come. Why? Because they have no reason to! They have no reason to believe that Christianity is any different than any other religion! We aren't showing them that Christ's love is like no other! We aren't ministering to them! Why should they come? If we are the body, why aren't his arms reaching, why aren't his hands healing, why aren't his words teaching. If we are the body, why aren't his feet going, why is his love not showing them there is a way? Am I saying that nurturing believers in the church is not important? By no means! But what are we getting equipped for? To better our own spiritual walk? That is partly it, but what does Jesus call us to do once we are equipped and ready? He calls us to make disciples. Are we doing that? How can we grow the church if we are not growing the kingdom? Ty(my college minister) reminded me of that today. Though church and a group of Christian friends is a crucial for keeping a good relationship with God and others, we should also be loving those who do not know him. Christ love means nothing if we are not showing that love to others. How do we do that? By being friends with those who do not know him(i.e. building relationships). By having a group of Christian friends to love and to be accountable and to encourage each other, but by also having a group of lost friends to love on and minister to. We cannot just sit in our Christian "circle" all the time and be content with that. We are ALL called to be missionaries, whether in another country or in our own community or even next door like my college minister. He is going to give up some of his responsibilities at church so that he can make time to love Jose again. He has also called our college ministry to start working on evangelism. The word evangelism doesn't mean that we are to stand on a corner and yell about Jesus and tell everyone else that they are going to hell. The number one way that people come to know Christ is through a relationship with a Christian that lives Christ-like. A person who loves them no matter what they do or say and who shows that through their actions and words. That is how the church will EVER truly grow as it should. We come with so many excuses like "I'm not strong enough", "I don't have the gift of evangelism", "I'm too busy", "I don't want to hang out with THOSE people". The truth is, God has given each of us a place of ministry and evangelism in our lives. Whether it's our next door neighbor, the homeless, people at our workplace, people in our schools, or just random people walking around town, we have so many chances to potentially show his love to someone we know that doesn't know him. So instead of condemning those "heathens" and "sinners", why don't we love them with Christ's love? And why don't we look in the mirror and see who the real heathen is for not loving these people? For not reaching out to build relationships. There are two very simple things that we are called to do as Christians: Love God and Love people. That's it. Nothing more nothing less. I pray that you will realize this. Pray for my college ministry as we try to orchestrate a plan to carry that out, as I will pray that the church will get back to what it originally was created to do. What we as the Church were created to do:)