The Preeminence of Christ

    After living in Taiwan for four years, I am starting to have reverse culture shock coming back to the USA.  One of the things that has been startling to me is how big everything is, particularly the stores, the houses and the churches.  For example, the church that I attend on Sunday, Grace Community Church, is a large two-story auditorium backlit by a huge window and a giant cross.  The stage itself is so large that even with the whole worship team onstage, it still seems empty.  To get to my children’s Sunday school classes, I have to wind through hallway after hallway, past other large auditoriums and various classrooms filled with youth, kids, and teachers.

    By the world’s standards, this church would be considered “successful.” The church was planted back in 1992 with ten people, built and moved into their first building in 2005 and added on more buildings and the current large worship hall in 2020.  It has had no church splits and has even helped plant a couple of other local churches. 

    Grace Community Church could easily boast about these things, and in truth, a church like this one could be even bigger and more grandiose.  It sits in one of the richest counties in the state with access to funding, volunteers, and talent. 

    Yet, the lead pastor last Sunday ended his preaching by emphatically saying, “I don’t want our church to be known for its size, its building, its music, or its preaching.  The only thing I pray is that this church be known as a place where Christ is preeminent.”  He had been preaching from Colossians 1 where Paul opens his letter with thanksgiving and a hymn of praise about the supremacy of Christ.  Christ is announced as the image of the invisible God who holds all things together and is before all things, the head of the church making peace and reconciling all things to himself through his blood.  Paul presents Christ as preeminent, meaning he is first in this world, in human history, and in the church. 

    The pastor continued by encouraging us to contemplate the preeminence of Christ this week and explained that just by focusing on Christ, who He is, His exalted place as God’s Son and His redeeming work, this alone would reorient how we viewed and lived our lives. 

    I have been thinking about the similarities between our church and Grace Community Church.  We are preparing to move into a beautiful new church building.  We have a congregation that is generous and talented.  It could be easy to focus on how great our programs are, how wonderful our music is or how fast we are growing.  But I pray that our church would be known for being a place where Christ is preeminent and where we together keep turning back to Him and His cross, so that when new people walk in, they will first see Christ above all things in our church.