#1 Who Can I Count On?
 

    If you want to become a better basketball player, what do you do? You find a team and play on it.
    If you want to learn Scandinavian cooking, what do you do? You find some old pros and imitate their technique.
    If you want to grown as a parent, teacher, pianist, or manicurist, what do you do? You find people who have the same interest and long experience, and you spend time with them. That's how we grow in almost any field you can name.
    So why is it that when it comes to spiritual growth, we abandon the process? Why is it that so many folks consider the church irrelevant to their spiritual growth and never see it as the fundamental, basic aspect of the process that it truly is? Their quest for spiritual maturity is stymied, but they never know why. It's really not such a mystery.
    The fact is, if you want to grow, you must be involved in the church.
    There are many pictures of the church in Scripture, but one of the best known and loved is of a body with Christ as its head. We are part of a fellowship where Christ is connecting all the members together, coordinating us, deeply involving us in the life of a believing fellowship under his control.
    We dare not turn our eyes off Christ, but neither must we lose sight of the task to which Christ committed himself - the building of his church.
    Christianity is not lived in isolation, "just me and the Lord.@ Christianity is lived within a community of believers. Every community must have a coordinated membership. Chaos results when everybody does his own thing.
    Integrated, coordinated living in the fellowship of believers presumes that the people who would submit to the Lord also are prepared to submit to each other. It's at this very point that a lot of people in the church get into trouble.
    When they find that things aren't going their way, they pick up their ball and head for another church. Instead of resolving the problem by displaying a submissive attitude, they simply take their rebellious disposition to another church. It's only a matter of time until same dreary cycle repeats itself.
    What really goes on in the pews when God's people gather together? How do people, who sit in the pew behave in light of the fact that they are related to the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church?
    Let's take a look at what Paul has to say about living and working in the church of Christ Jesus.
 

Building Bridges
 

My purpose is that they may be . . . united in love.
(Colossians 2:2)
 

    An American was telling a group of friends about a trip he'd recently taken to Africa. He'd gone there with a Christian relief organization to find and tap fresh water supplies for poor villages.
    One day he and his African friends were traveling by Jeep from one village to another. They had journeyed a fair distance when they had to stop because a small bridge on their route had collapsed.
    The American took one look at the problem and thought to himself, No big deal. It should only take a couple of minutes to repair, and we can be on our way.
    Two Africans got out of the Jeep and inspected the broken bridge. Patiently they began discussing a possible remedy. This went on for ten minutes, then fifteen, then twenty, then half an hour. It was obvious the two did not agree on the best solution to the problem, and were quietly talking through the dilemma. The American, glancing at his watch, grew impatient.
    For Pete's sake, guys, one of you just take charge and tell the other what to do, he thought. We don't have time for all this!
    But the Africans continued their conversation, and only after coming to some sort of agreement did they get the bridge repaired. Once they went to work, the repairs took but a few minutes.
    The American was steaming. He was about to lay into one of his African hosts when the man explained what had just taken place. Neither African had wanted to offend the other by insisting on his method of bridge first aid. Either method would have worked, and both would have taken about the same amount of time, but these men treasured friendship above time management. In their culture, maintaining good relationships was more important than maintaining schedules.
    The American gulped.
    Here I came to teach, he thought, and I'm the one who's learning.
    Those African men knew that one of the best ways to encourage a brother is to be united in spirit with him. That's exactly what the apostle Paul taught the Colossian church, and it's a lesson we desperately need to learn. Paul wanted the church to be united in love.
    What are some ways each Christian can contribute to the unity of the church?
 

~Stuart Briscoe~