258. Plan For Strength
This week, the gym opened up, so I was glad to be back. I was thankful for a solid strength program that I trust and follow. Even after a month of break, I knew exactly what to do and how much to do, instead of being tempted to do too many exercises at once and knock myself out. On the first return day, I did three major compound exercises and called it a day.
I think the Christian life is the same. Sometimes life takes us out of our optimal faith condition, and we lose strength. That is why it is crucial to have a plan to follow to get ourselves back on track. The plan in our church is called “3 Axes”: Sunday worship, Life Bible Studies, and house church. They are designed to train three primary faculties of our human beings: Will, Intellect and Emotion.
Sunday worship is where we train our “will.” Too many Christians expect to be just inspired by the sermon. Inspiration must result in action. Sunday is time to decide how we will live our lives in the coming week.
Life Bible studies train our “intellect.” Pastors cannot go into detail on Sunday sermons as time is limited and the audience range is wide. That is why we offer Life Bible Studies for a specific group of people and particular goals.
House Church trains our “emotion.” We apply everything we learned in Life Bible Studies and Sunday sermons in house church. It is where people “feel” belong in our church. When members practice loving others and tangibly serving them, they feel belong in a church and learn that church is “people,” not a building.
The benefit of strength-based programs made up of compound exercises is that one can build the most muscle in the most sustainable way. You may not look like a bodybuilder, but you can look decently strong and possess functional strength for the rest of your life. In the same way, in house church ministry, we focus on main ministries that trigger the most amount of spiritual growth in the most sustainable way. When you faithfully follow the simple plan above and try your best to engage in them, you may not look like a spiritual giant, but you can certainly expect to have a solid faith.
