Make SWEC My Church

Although the word church is used in English as a special religious word, it comes from the Greek word ekklesia, which isn’t a religious at all. It’s a word that simply means gathering or assembly. It was a word used to describe just about any gathering of people.

Why is this important? Central to the idea of church is therefore not buildings or denominations (like being Anglican, Presbyterian, or Baptist), but it’s all about the gathering and the coming together of God’s people.

As a result of Jesus’ first coming, and winning salvation at the cross and by his resurrection, those that believe become a new people of God. To put it another way, the church is formed as a result of God’s mission to save people. The Apostle Peter describes it perfectly in his first letter:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

God’s mission is the gathering of his treasured, beloved, people – the church. The church isn’t like any other voluntary organisation or social group. From the earliest gathering of God’s people, this community is meant to be a little “not-yet-perfect” but tangible picture of heaven:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

SWEC isn’t just someone else’s church. SWEC is our church, made up of the community of God’s people that he has gathered in our part of Sydney. We all work together to shape this community and church into what it is. We sincerely hope that you have enough reason to make it your church as well. So on behalf of the leadership at our church, we’d love to invite you to join us as we make, mature, mobilise, and multiply more disciples of our wonderful Lord Jesus in Sydney’s South and South-West. We invite you to join us regularly, worshipping with us regularly, being in the Word with us regularly, making the most of being part of a community and joining us on mission.

 

Next Steps

• Attend Sunday services regularly.
• Pray regularly.
• Give regularly.
• Join a Community Group. Our Community Groups are designed to help people read and apply the Bible in a smaller and more relationally-focused setting. Joining a Community Group can really help you go deeper into God’s Word and learn from each other in the process.
• Meet up and read the Bible with someone. Find one or two other people and form a Bible reading partnership or triplet. This is one of the best ways to get more into God’s Word, and it’s so easy. Anyone can do this, and you don’t even need a leader. If you’d like some ideas of how to make this work for you, come and see one of the pastors and we’d love to help you get this off the ground. Or even ask some of the people you know! I’m sure they’d love to either help form one, or be part of one!
• Serve in a ministry team with the gifts and talents given to you by God
• Consider becoming a Partner (talk to one of your leaders).