Hello on Good Friday...

Well, today was Good Friday, the ironically-named day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem at the end of His earthly ministry. The day is named "Good" because although Christ's death was absolutely horrible, it is unbelievably good for us that He chose it. Because Jesus took the punishment for our evil and sinfulness that we deserved and surrendered Himself to die on the cross, the way for us to be forgiven by God through faith in Christ was created. The Gospel, the Good News of Christ, is right there before us in the story of Jesus' act of obedience.

So, Good Friday indeed is a memorial to the greatest, best Good ever to happen in time. Our sinfulness met its required perfect substitute and sacrifice in God's Son Jesus. Thank God for His perfect plan to fix our relationship with Him, His perfect Son, and His perfect sacrifice of Himself for us... Even us.

Sunday at the Ridge, we will honor Jesus for His gift of life that was made possible by His gift of death on the cross. There will be some quiet time to worship and thank Jesus for His death. Then, we will celebrate His resurrection... Proof that He is Lord over death! There will be some happy, joyful time to worship and praise Jesus for His Lordship and status as God. At the end of our gathering, we will celebrate our first Communion together as believers and as a church. You definitely want to be there!

This Sunday, we will meet at Fountain City Park. We lost the meeting location we have been enjoying for free this last Sunday. Our landlord has been great to us, and even called me this week to check on our arrangements for Sunday. The time just came that he needed to rent out the space to someone else.

So, we don't have a whole lot of leads on new, fancy meeting locations. We do have a place to meet next week, so no worries there. (We'll let you know that on Sunday, so come to our Easter gathering!) But, it's OK that we don't have a new fancy meeting location!

So many churches are so hung up on their building/facility/fortress/comfort zone/idol. Unfortunately, many Christians are so dependent on their church buildings that they can't imagine "doing church" outside them, rarely seem to have any gatherings or fellowships that aren't at them, and even are confused about "the church" being a building.

This is unfortunate and so sad! I can go on, as this is one of my pet peeves... But just let it suffice for me to say two things:

1) Jesus (our Great Shepherd) didn't have a building. Luke 9:58 (ESV) says: "And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'” Jesus wasn't a building manager. He was a guy who went all over talking about His Kingdom to people (who act just like sheep!). He preached in houses, on a boat to people on shore, and on hillsides. He loved His Father's creation and hung out in it with others. That's pretty cool to me.

2) The early church had no buildings. Folks met in the homes of those who would open them in hospitality. Believe it or not, Christianity had very few dedicated buildings until Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion in 313. In fact, worshiping openly would in many cases result in arrest and did result in death for many believers. Many Christians even today meet in homes for fear of their government (China, North Korea, Iran) or due to financial constraints (Brazil, etc.). Meeting in a home or other location makes sense for alot of reasons!

So, we'll keep our eyes open for a new place to meet... And we'll keep you updated on our progress! But, we're not too worried about it because having a building has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual authenticity. It just makes things easier, in exchange for costing some of the money God provides to His people. God will provide a new location when He's ready, and his church (His people) will keep on being the church at The Ridge. We'll keep on worshiping Jesus and focusing on our Core Values. No matter where we end up, we're Ridge Church!