Dearly beloved in Christ, Greetings
It is with gladness in my heart that I thank Almighty and congratulate you for my pastoral appointment by our Bishop.Dr.Elia Pradeep Samuel to MTC, Bhandup at the session of 31st Bombay Regional Conference, Pune.
At the outset, I would like to thank my predecessor Rev. Christopher Raja and the committee for their deep commitment to the church and its spiritual rejuvenations.
What is the church? Is the church a building? Is it the place where believers gather to worship? Or is the church the people—the believers who follow Christ? How we understand and perceive the church? “A church is a group of believers who gather for religious purposes”. “A church is a building in which Christians meet for worship,” The word "church" as rendered in the New Testament comes from the Greek term ekklesia which is formed from two Greek words meaning "an assembly" and "to call out" or "called out ones." In summary, the New Testament church is a body of believers who have been called out from the world by God to live as his people under the authority of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23).
This group of believers or "the body of Christ" began in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost through the work of the Holy Spirit and will continue to be formed until the day of the rapture of the church.
A person becomes "a member" of the church simply by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. His purpose of the church is two-fold. First the church comes together for the purpose of bringing each member to spiritual maturity (Ephesians 4:13).
Second the church reaches out to spread the love of Christ and the gospel message to unbelievers in the world (Matthew 28:18-20). So church is defined as a local assembly of believers or a congregation that meets together physically for worship, fellowship, teaching, edification, prayer and encouragement in the faith (Hebrews 10:25).
Let us desire to build the family of God by the punctual worship through the Word of God to expand His kingdom to the communities’ right around us.
As we all are aware of our church structure issues and confusions,I urge you not to be discouraged in any way about the size of it. God’s strength is not in numbers but in faith and implicit obedience to Him. Let us open ourselves more transparently and completely to resolve all the barriers, together in unison with the strength of God and work towards spreading the gospel. The ministry of the church is successful when men and women within a local church come forward to shoulder the responsibility with diligence. So pray ardently every day.
Martin Luther rightly said, "Come, let us sing a psalm, and drive away the devil. Hope to see God’s wonders in our midst.