Suppose one Sunday morning you were coming to church (the building) to worship. And, when you got here, the building was gone, and the church was gone. Two or three things come immediately to mind:

How can you move an entire building? (But we have to ALWAYS remember that the church has not now, never was, and never will be defined in terms of a building of bricks and stones. It is made up of living stones – people – that can exist without the trappings of a modern day, $1-10,000,000 building!

Would we miss the church, if it were not here? Would we miss the communion and fellowship that gathering together brings? Would we miss the worship to God?

Would the community miss the church? If we got back in our cars and drove around and stopped and asked a few people, would they be able to tell us where the church had gone? Further, would they miss the church?

We ask this to make us stop and think for a few minutes. Would the church be missed if the doors were closed? Would anyone notice? I know that we who are members of the church would! And we should! But what about everyone else! Would the church be missed?

“According to Gallup, 66% of people in America would make or agree with this statement, “The church has little or no value in helping people discover meaning in life.” This statement reflects the fact that, seemingly, the church has disengaged from the world and has no relevance to modern man. And, if things continue as they are, it seems, the church will lose more and more influence as time goes on.
Now, we shouldn’t be worried so much about what the world thinks of us – we have to consider what God thinks of us! However, if we are to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16) we also must realize that God expects us to impact the world, not allow the world to impact us.

We do that by service and evangelism. First, we serve others, but especially those of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10). We have to get back in the world (didn’t Jesus tell us to “GO”) and find opportunities to serve! The more we engage with the world in service, the more some people will see that the church does have relevance and will be willing to listen to the message of the gospel.

It also means that each of us must realize that the gospel must have an impact on us, and show by our lives that God is working in our lives, and can work in the lives of others! We must show that God can work in anyone’s life, if they will but give Him a chance.

Getting back to the story above, let us work at making South Cobb such a church that if it “comes up missing” some of the community will say, “I don’t know where it is, but let’s go look. We need that church in our community.”

From the article, “Leading Your Church with an External Focus” by Rick Rusaw in Sermoncentral.com.