THE OTHER SIX DAYS

At the corner of West 79th Street and Broadway stands the First Baptist Church of New York City since 1891, 24/7. It is important to note that a house of worship mirrors and promotes the theology and philosophy of the congregation it houses.

One unique feature of First Baptist's architecture are the two unequal towers over the corner entrance to the main auditorium. The pastor and architect agreed for the towers to serve as an example of biblical symbolism. The taller tower represents Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church, the first born of all creation, the One who holds all things together. The lower tower, which appears incomplete, was designed to represent the church and individual Christians, who await completion at the return of Christ.

C.S. Lewis said, “What you do screams so loud I can’t hear what you say;” in other words, whatever you say you think or believe, will always be trumped by your actions.

Spiritual matters should not be separated from routine life. Spiritual matters should completely be part of routine, that is, fully integrated into regular life and not relegated to compartmentalized moments or people. If you manage to identify yourself as a follower of Christ on Sunday, the next six days of the week should be no different.

Dr. David Cheung, president of the Asian Theological Seminary shared this story recently at church. A business woman decided to be born again. She was so happy with her new faith, she never missed church and prayer meetings, small group Bible studies and outreach activities. She claimed that since she decided to be born again God started blessing her business venture. She asked her pastor to dedicate her new restaurant. She claimed, "Pastor, before I was born again I only had two tables in this restaurant, but now I have more than a dozen, and I even have strip dancers!"

Somehow, there was a disparity between religious and business life. A lot of people that fill the pews every Sunday are on that same boat. There is somewhat of a disconnection between Sunday and the other six days. How do we connect the worlds together? Or better yet, how can we take our faith into the marketplace? It is easy to be a Christian at church on Sunday, but the real work of the Church is often done in the marketplace, on the job, where you must live out the principles of your faith and where you interact with a world of people. Each of them represents an opportunity where you can represent Christ to them in a real, tangible, visible way.

This requires commitment. Methodist pastor, Stephen Bauman once said, "Commitment is one of those dangerous, hair-raising words."[1]

Why? Because commitment is never a given. For example, just because I happen to be a Filipino doesn’t mean I will follow all the laws, pay my taxes and vote. Or just because I'm called a student, I will always get "As" at the end of the term. Or just because I happen to say I believe in God doesn’t mean I’ll give God all that I am. Genuine faith causes people to live for God, but we need to choose to obey. Those require commitment, and commitment is volitional, it falls within the realm of human choice. It has emotional, mental, spiritual, even physical components, and on any given day in any given relationship we can waffle between rugged dedication and lazy indifference, if not active disregard. Commitment is hair-raising precisely because it touches a sensitive place within our character.

Jesus goes on to say, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me hears my words and acts on them…” [2] Until we are able to do what we learn, we will never see the good that could come from it. Until we act, the good that might be accomplished remains in a frozen state, inert, unrealized, unborn, only so many words. [3]

When you worship on Sunday, intentionally think of ways how you can bring what you will learn to where you'll spend the other six days.

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[1] Stephen Bauman, Commitment Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007, CCNYC

[2] Jesus, Luke 6:46-48

[3] Stephen Bauman, Commitment Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007, CCNYC