The Church community is here to help you grow in your faith.  Each week it provides programs for adults and young people alike to take new steps in their walk with God.  This growth comes through worship, prayer, communion, and ultimately teaching.  It is here to help you read and understand your Bible, along with how it applies to your life.  The Church wants teach you know more about God’s will and encourage you to live it out through the week. 

Through this time of lockdown, I have been wondering about what people are doing to grow spiritually without their community of faith to help them.  Don’t get me wrong, as a Church leader, I am still here to help you, and I am trying to provide resources, but there is only so much I can do. 

The person who is most responsible for your maturity as a believer is YOU.  You need to be able to read, study, and learn on your own.  You need to know how to pray for yourself and others.  You need to feel the desire to sing and find the words to voice your praise.  The most significant factor in your faith journey, other than God, is you. 

During this time of quarantine, some of you will thrive, and some of you will starve.  My prayer is that you will use this time to bring you closer to God.  The primary factor to whether that will happen is staring you in the mirror.  There is no one else to blame right now; your spiritual growth is in your hands. 

Here is the shocking truth; once this is all over, the same person will still be responsible.  This time away from the Church body has not changed anything; it has merely revealed something many of us have ignored.  Each one of us is responsible to God for our own faith, and the Church is just here to help you.