Part of the Wall

A thought has been mulling in my mind for a week now. I heard someone mention this thought so it's not original to me, but it is on my mind so I'll share it. Nehemiah didn't just rebuild the wall that surrounded the city of Jerusalem. He rebuilt the people of God. The people were a part of the wall. They held trowels in one hand and swords in the other, they were part of the wall. If the city was attacked it was the wall that provided defense right? Well, it was also the people. The people defended the city.

I guess what I've been thinking is that it is not just a matter of the "Machine" be it a wall or church. It's the Mission, and the mission exists only in people not the Machine. We can get focused on our "wall" or we can be focused on our mission. If we get caught up only in the machine of what songs we sing, how we play them, what food we have at food services, what teaching we hear, or did what they were supposed to do on Sunday we're caught in the machine. And is that really what we're about? We believe that the church is better at being the church when we're not at church. That's mission not machine.

The wall was an integral part of what Nehemiah did, just like our Sunday Gatherings are an integral part of SRC. It just wasn't the point then, and it's not the point now.

--Ben