Jesus is the Savior ONLY of the church

You read that right. Not, "Jesus is the only savior" or "Only Jesus is the savior". Nope, it's "Jesus is the Savior ONLY of the church". What would you think if you heard someone preach that? What if the preacher went on to infer that "God so loved the world" and verses following really means that God loves obedient believers......only. Let me know your take on these teachings. I will give you my take later.

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I hear people talking about "unchurched believers". I can promise you one thing, the people being referred to there did not come up with that label for themselves. They consider themselves part of the church. They correctly realize that "church" is NOT congregational worship. They also know that "church" is not organized religion. All the ones I know have contact with other believers, and feel a part of the family of God........the church. And I gotta tell ya, a lot of the believers I know that aren't part of some congregation are having a lot more impact on their communities by being light and salt than the majority of pew warmers at the local congregations.......of any stripe or tribe. No doubt God made us to be in community with other believers. He doesn't want us or expect us to live in a vacuum. Hence the admonition from the Hebrews writer in chapter 10 verse 25. But He didn't define that community, the church, as only those that meet at the church building 3 times a week.

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I heard a preacher say that Mega churches are trying to reach the "unchurched believers". My take is that Mega churches surely wouldn't turn those folks away, but their main target is unchurched UNBELIEVERS. I feel quite confident that is the target group North Richland Hills is trying to reach. I heard Dave Stone say those unbelievers are the folks the Mega congregation where he attends is trying to reach. I have never heard of a church that put a higher priority on reaching believers over non-believers. That wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, would it? By the way, the Mega church folks must be doing a pretty good job......hence the term "Mega". I know I know. Maybe they aren't "sound". :) Let's don't even go there again.

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Have I told you how blessed I feel to be a part of a congregation that is OUTWARDLY focused?
You won't hear sermons there about what other groups of believers are doing wrong, and what we are doing right. You will hear sermons encouraging us to seek the lost, bring back the strays, strengthen the weak, and heal or bind up the wounded. What a blessing!