“What I Love About the Church” – Bobby Cohoon
Open the Door and See All the People!
We all remember the little hand game we learned: Here’s the church and here’s the steeple; Open
the door and see all the people. I don’t know how old I was when I learned that but it has stuck with me through many years. My fondest memories are wrapped around going through that door and being with “all the people.” There is something special about being together with God’s people.
The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” (Hebrews 10:25). To me the church is special because of that encouragement. And, the encouragement doesn’t just come from the pulpit or a 45 minute Bible study. I am encouraged by every face and facet of being in the church.
It’s the hugs I receive from brothers and sisters when I get there: I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine (2 Corinthians 8:8). It’s the laugh, or the cry, of a baby during my sermon: Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:4). It’s the clanking of a walker coming down the aisle: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction (James 1:27). Did I mention the fellowship meals? In approximately in fifth of the sentences in Luke’s gospel and Acts, meals play a conspicuous role. John Mark Hicks wrote, “Table fellowship was a focal point of Jesus Ministry and it became a focal point of the early church.”[1]
It is at the gathering where I am rejuvenated on a weekly basis. It is there that I am encouraged, sometimes when I think it’s hopeless. It is with God’s people that I feel the love of God abounding. Lord never let us live, “Here’s the church and here’s the steeple open the door and see no people.”
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About Bobby Cohoon:
Bobby Cohoon is a Preaching major from Mid Atlantic Christian university ( http://macuniversity.edu ) and is the minister at Roanoke acres Church of Christ in Manteo, North Carolina (http://www.roanokeacres.embarqspace.com/ ). My website, here in the real world, is at http://bobbycohoon.com
[1] John Mark Hicks, Come To The Table (USA: Leafwood, 2002) p 53.
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Personal Thoughts:
I thank Bobby for his thoughts on the fellowship of the church. The rejuvenation found in the fellowship of the church is a stronghold as we battle the world around us. I wish we would sing the “Open the door and see all the people” more. We need reminders each day of the power of fellowship with our spiritual family.
Thanks Bobby!
Chris
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Excellent! Now what are the rest of us supposed to write about? Great thoughts Bobby! Great idea Chris!
Good job, Bobby. Thank you.