I Love This Church!!

I headed up north to State College last weekend to watch Penn State and Alabama square off against each other. It's amazing to see an entire town transformed for game day. People flock in all decked out in their game day apparel touting their support for their school, and during this white out game, it was even easier to spot the crimson Bama fans dotting the stadium. "We Are!!...Penn State!!" could be heard as people chanted around town, and you could feel the anticipation build as you got closer to Beaver Stadium and game time approached. The Blue Band came out to kick off the game (as you can see above), and the place erupted. The Nittany Lion led a call and response as one side of the stadium shouted "WE ARE!!", and the other side answered "PENN STATE!!". The air was filled with passionate excitement, and fans were ready.

So how is it that we can go to a football game and cheer on our favorite team...yelling, screaming, clapping, waving our pom-poms...and then go to church on Sunday and sit there sullen and straight faced without any excitement at all?? Shouldn't our relationship with God be exciting? Shouldn't we enjoy the community of believers that gather together to celebrate the God who created us and loves us? I'm not saying we need to jump up and down, dance in the aisles, and wave flags...although, maybe there is a time and a place for that as well. I'm just saying that maybe we should actually realize why we're going to church in the first place and Who we're actually there for. Isn't God an even bigger reason to celebrate? Shouldn't He be the greatest reason of all to celebrate? Maybe we should actually let that sink in and have an affect on our hearts.

God deserves our excitement. God deserves our joy. God deserves our best.

I want to be contagious. I want the excitement that I've found in my relationship with Christ to be caught by others around me. I want to spread the joy that God's put in my heart and effect people I come into contact with. I want to worship all week long in anticipation of joining with my church family each weekend to celebrate together. And even more than that, I want to turn that celebration into action. Not only by being responsive within our time of corporate worship, but also by responding through serving within my church.

I love my church!!

I'm loving the current "I Love This Church" series that Pastor Curt is sharing with us, and I love that we have the opportunity to be involved, share our excitement, live out our faith, and do something about it by giving back.