I hope that those of you who attended our service online and in-person yesterday were blessed. I sure was. What a great time of sharing, caring, and celebration! Though it looked like it might rain, the weather was perfect!—Nice and overcast as we ate together in the parking lot. May that morning set the tone for this year together as a church.

I mentioned during the sermon that, as we regather after a period of turmoil, we will have to do some rebuilding. 2,500 years ago, the Israelites returned to their destroyed temple and God put a desire in their hearts to rebuild it (Ezra 1:5-6). Today, we have no structures to rebuild—we don’t worship in a physical temple anymore (John 4:21-24). So, what do we mean by rebuild?

The difference now is that we are the temple. God’s people are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). When we join together, we are the stones that build a spiritual house of worship (1 Peter 2:5). But this Holy Spirit temple is not meant to simply exist for its own sake, just like the temple of the Old Testament wasn’t built for its own sake. It was built for a purpose. The temple was constructed so that the people could be near to God, that God’s glory would be magnified in the world, and that God’s people would minister to each other and to the nations. Temples do nothing on their own—God has a purpose through them.

The New Testament temple—that is, the church—is the same way. God has a divine mission for the church as taught throughout the entire Bible and particularly the New Testament. At Richview, we’ve summarized this mission into four “pillars” of ministry: Worship, Evangelism, Discipleship, and Community. In simpler terms: we love Jesus, we share Jesus, we follow Jesus, and we love like Jesus. This is what my prayer is for this church—that God would put in our hearts the same desire that He put in the hearts of the Israelites as they regathered: rebuild!

May we take up the purpose for which God has made us a temple. Of course, we did not lose track of these four pillars of ministry over the past year-and-a-half, yet this new season marks a new opportunity for us to refocus on the purpose for which Jesus has brought us together—to joyfully lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus through worship, evangelism, discipleship, and community.

This will be a year of clarifying what all that means for us at Richview, and how our members and core people can contribute meaningfully to that mission. How has God gifted you to participate in this rebuilding project? I’m excited to speak to you and hear from you about these things in the coming weeks!

Blessings!