By: Giana Lopez

Spoiler Alert: This is probably the most counter-cultural thing I've written to date. But these things have been on my heart and I believe they are important. When I came to Tallahassee in 2008, I had no intentions whatsoever of staying after college. My heart longed to be holed up in a loft somewhere in Chicago or New York City with a bunch of weird artsy people with too many tattoos. Northern Florida was not on my radar. But in the years since, God has done a real number on my heart concerning His plan for His body of believers. You may have heard before, "the church is God's Plan A. There is no Plan B."

Throughout Scripture, it is made clear over and over again that God's will is not for us to journey through this life alone. We are to be in community, and the church is to be serious about Christ. The church is a body of believers that has made the conscious decision to be a church and to carry out God's will in the world. We are to constantly pray for each other, share with each other, confess sin to each other, hold each other accountable, and above all, we are to press on to know Jesus more and more each day (Hebrews 10:23-25). The following are some serious things that God has been convicting my heart about. Please know that behind my words is a heart of love for my brothers and sisters and Christ, and I am speaking to myself just as much as to anyone reading this.

1. Church is not a book club or a sorority or a social society in which the whole point is to dress cute and see our friends and sing songs written by handsome Australian hipsters. And girls, as far as dressing cute goes, there's nothing wrong with having good style, but if you select your outfits for church with the intention of some guy looking at you and wanting you, your heart is in a bad place. You are literally going to church with the hidden intention to distract attention from the Father and place it upon yourself. Lord, please help us to have the security in you and the humility to not be this way! God is who a man's heart should hunger for, not our short-skirted selves!

2. God's church is NOT a place where gossip is to be tolerated. God is very serious about how His children treat each other. Ephesians 4:29 says that not only should we never say hurtful things, but we should be so radically devoted to Christ that we ONLY say things that honor God and build people up in their pursuit of Him. Wow.

3. God has given the church responsibility in addressing sin, and no matter how uncomfortable this is, the Bible teaches that if a church has to repeatedly confront a professing church member about their sinful habits and they don't repent-it is the churches RESPONSBILITY before God to ask that person to leave the church. How counter-cultural, and at first, extremely rude is that statement. My heart singed with discomfort and conviction when I learned that. But, "there are serious consequences coming for those who 'play church'." As a body of believers, we are subject to the words of Christ. He says not to be associated with the brother who is sexually immoral (1 Cor. 5:11). And in rejecting their sinful lifestyle, maybe they will feel the consequences and repent.

4. We are to be desperate for the Holy Spirit, and we are collectively to commit ourselves to the duties and responsibilities given to the Church. God's desire is still for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to reach the ends of the earth. We need each other to do this. A sermon by David Platt from several years ago had the following points: We are to be desperate for the Holy Spirit because: 1) we have a privilege we cannot forsake, 2) we have an assignment we cannot fulfill, 3) we have a family we cannot forget, and 4) we have a God we cannot fathom. God has huge dreams for His church, and we can accomplish them only by His power. But full surrender to His plan and His power brings so much wonder, blessing, healing, and the strengthening of faith. Let us be a family of believers that reminds each other of our calling and pushes each other on to these Heavenly principles.

5. James chapter 2 has a serious lesson for us young people in the year 2012. Nowadays, the Christian sub-culture has certain unspoken understandings of which kind of people belong at which churches. If a visitor from another church, maybe one more traditional, comes in, we can tell they're a stranger. Different styles of clothing or body language make us feel like only a certain kind of cool person is part of our church. But God gives staunch and serious warnings about when we show favoritism. "Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes... have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?... If you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." I have had to repent and pray for a change of heart many times when I assume things about people, and whether or not they are spiritual, or legit, or judgmental or hypocritical, based solely on how they seem to be. But in that scenario, I'm the one who's become a "judge with evil thoughts."

6. This one's short. Do you see church as yours? Do you see the Gospel as something to be distributed only in your way to people that you prefer, or through your style of music in your type of building with your leaders as the only ones who can do it right? I think it's high time the church sees itself completely at the feet of the Master, King Jesus. This is HIS church, it's HIS family, it's HIS Gospel, and we are so blessed beyond belief to be a part of HIS mission to save HIS world. Let's be on our faces praying for the ears to hear His direction, the eyes to see need, the heart to fill those needs, and the obedience and faith to go to the places He tells us to go. The church is an abundant blessing, but it's to be taken seriously.

7. Just like in marriage, you don't love someone because they're perfect for you and they meet all of your needs. You commit and serve them and stay with them because God commands it. The same is true with His church. Although Tallahassee was never my life's dream city, I have found here a church that truly believes the Gospel and serves the Lord with its resources. Sure, I could leave and follow my dreams to Chicago or New York and find a church there that may fit into my schedule, my image, my group of friends... but that's not what commitment is. I would encourage you to pray for conviction about how to commit and get plugged into the church. City Church is not the only church on the planet that does things the right way, but it is a rarity in 2012. While not everyone who enters its doors may be called to remain here forever-- we do need to send people out to spread the Word elsewhere-- some of you may be needing to listen to God's tug on your heart to lay aside your aspirations for yourself and to realize that the greatest calling you could ever hope for is that of being a part of God's working on this earth. And that is being a part of His family, His body, the church. Commit to the church. It's so worth it.