Essence

It has been a few days since my last post.  Crazy week at work and trying to finish taxes can take a lot of time and energy.  So, this isn't a start to my series just yet. 

But, another thought on how we do church: 
My parents used to say that losing weight is quite simple in concept:  you just have to burn more calories than you ingest.  Everything else is just fads.  Now, I know there is a little more to it than that:  good fats vs. bad fats, best exercise intensity to burn fat, etc.  But these things just assist the core concept.
Similarly with what happens when the church meets together.  The core concept is simple:  As I see from Scripture, there are  four main things that should happen:
(1) Singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
(2) Breaking of bread (Communion)
(3) Prayer
(4) Preaching the Word (which I think of as reading it and explaining it).
We get wrapped up in the fads of how we do these things, but they only assist (or detract from in many cases) the core concept.  And, God's Word should be central to all of these four activities.  Our songs should be Scripture-saturated.  Our breaking of bread and prayer should be in accordance with the Word.  And, our preaching should be more God's Word than our own words.  God's Word is power.  He spoke and the universe was created.  We should trust His Word to do His work in His church.  Not our little faddish methods.