Home
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…” Psalm 27:4
“There’s no place like home.” I’m sure most of you have a memory of hearing that famous line from The Wizard of Oz as a child. For many of us, the television showing of the classic movie was “appointment TV.” I know I am aging myself right now, but the annual opportunity to watch Dorothy’s adventures was always a treat. In my family, we lovingly teased my Father, whose home was the same as Dorothy’s, Kansas, about the seemingly “accurate” portrayal of the dusty, midwestern state.
Just like the land of Oz, the journey of faith brings color and unexpected adventures and characters to our lives, but it also reminds us of our longing to find our way back home. As believers, we know that Heaven is ultimately our eternal home, but while we are here in our mortal bodies on planet Earth, there is a place where we can find the closest thing to our eternal home and that is our local Church body.
As someone who has made my professional life through vocational ministry at City Mission, I have seen how significant having a place to call home truly can be. While most of us reading this are blessed to have a physical home, I wonder if you can remember the time when you were without a spiritual home.
Through circumstances I have faced recently, I have not been able to attend Church due to physical limitations. (Thankfully, by the time you read this, I will have celebrated the Sabbath with my Church Family for the first time in person in several weeks. I am so very grateful to have the technological blessing of watching our Live Broadcasts. Our Broadcast Team does a phenomenal job!)
Just like God does, He will use circumstances that aren’t easy or pleasant to us and works all things together for good (Romans 8:28). One of the ways that He did this for me was to help me to see just how much I truly miss my Church family and attending Sunday service. It’s not as if I didn’t appreciate it before, but as the saying goes, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Through these weeks of having to stay off my feet and more or less being confined to my apartment, God truly chiseled away at my heart. No Church is perfect, but despite our flaws, we are incredibly blessed by the Church Family God has brought together here at Champion.
Perhaps some of you reading this may feel that you are still in a temporary shelter and haven’t been able to put your roots down. My prayer for and challenge to you is that if you haven’t fully “moved” into Champion, you will start unpacking and settle in. For my fellow Champions, I want to challenge us to continue to welcome new people into this Home.
Here’s the key things that I think distinguish Champion and that we can continue to strive to do to make His House into a H.O.M.E.:
H—Healing (Isaiah 53:5; Psalm 147:3) Champion is not only a place where we believe in the miraculous power of God to heal us physically, but for many of us, Champion has been the place that through the transformative power of love, we have found healing from past Church hurt and various forms of abuse at the hands of others or the abuse of substances. (I have found this to be especially profound in the lives being changed at our Bridge To Life Ministries.) We can help others go from feeling a hole in their heart to feeling they have been made whole.
O—Opportunity (Ephesians 2:10) Just some of the ways we have to see God work in our lives are: our opportunity to sow into the Kingdom of God through our giving, serving on a Dream Team, finding a community through our Champ Groups, or volunteering for our various outreaches. There are truly plenty of options to give God an opportunity to use and to bless us.
M—Maturity (Ephesians 4:14-15) By engaging with and actively applying the Spirit anointed teaching and preaching of our Pastors, we can grow our faith lives through deepening our knowledge of God’s Word and learn to become more Christ like. This will help us to function as a growing family that uses grace and obedience to the Lord to embrace each part of the body. I am so thankful for the growth my husband and I have experienced from the teaching we get to hear at Champion.
E—Encouragement (Hebrews 10:24-25) When we see others seeming to be left out, struggling with what feels like unanswered prayers, dealing with grief, or with issues of faith, in general, we can be a tremendous network for the struggling and discouraged to find hope. A simple text asking where someone has been, a meal cooked for a new Mom, or even something as simple as a hug or a welcoming smile can make all the difference in the world. Our Champ Fam is full of people who love and encourage each other!
Our Church is already a “very, very, very fine House.” I hope this has served to remind you some of why you chose to make this your home. I pray that as we have the opportunity to have our weekly “Open House,” more and more will find Champion, unpack, and know that there is no place like Home!