So much more

Have you ever gone through a scrap book or an old box of photos? Maybe you've seen a photo online of the beach where you went for your honeymoon.

Have you ever tried to show the picture to a friend only to feel like they were less than impressed?

My wife and I have pictures from various points of our childhood, wedding, honeymoon, married life and this last year with our son.

To many people those pictures cannot be fully appreciated. The simple fact is that when I look at one of these photos, my mind searches for the file where I stored some of these memories. The photos of our honeymoon bring back the temperature, smells, sense of peace and 'right' that I felt. The photos also bring back memories of the plane ride, wedding day and all that led to that moment when the finger pressed the trigger on the camera.

I can't help but to see the striking similarity between our photos and the local church. Each Sunday we show people (through our service) a photo of an aspect of Christ. We point to him, we describe him in that picture or framework and then we leave. Those in our audience who have a thriving relationship with Christ are able to fill in the blanks. They get it. They know what the rest of the landscape looks like.

There typically are however a group of people out there who have no clue what is just left or right of the camera angle. The rest of the story seems to go unnoticed and therefore the picture holds less meaning. This is a reason why one person can walk out pumped up and another walks out only barely affected. They just don't see the rest of the picture.

This is where one of our major challenges lies as the body of Christ. We must do our best to bring people along and help them to see th bigger picture. We should work to provide our guests with new opportunities to connect. As these relationships form we will be able to allow them to see the fullness of Christ and it will help them to better understand each photo.