The CCC Compost Pile

So, I built a compost pile at my house the other day.  As I was building it I thought to myself “Self, Community Christian Church is kind of like a compost pile”.  Basically a compost pile (or at least the one I did) works as follows:  You start off with a bunch of tree limps, branches and the like.  That forms your base.  You do this so that air can flow under the pile, which speeds up the process.  Then you make a “nest” out of leafs and grass clippings, that sort of thing.  This allows for airflow from the sides.  (Doing it this way you don’t have to turn the pile).  Then you pile in your garbage, which is just about anything but meat and dairy.  I think I had some egg shells, a few bananas, some lettuce and other various vegetables and bread product.  After you put your trash in the nest you cover it up with leafs and the whole process starts over.  Nest, trash, leafs.  Nest, trash, leafs. Etc.   Then the soil heats up, the bugs and microorganisms do their thing and before long you have great soil for your garden, to make things grow.  Then the stuff you grow eventually ends up back in the compost pile and becomes fertile soil for next years garden.  It really is amazing how it works.  You’ve got all this worthless left over table scraps that are magically converted to rich fertile soil.  Is the Church any different?  No, if it’s working right, not really.  We’ve got our base God.  Then we surround ourselves with a nest or support system: small groups, serving teams, friends that will help us.  Then we put ourselves in the nest.  Now, I won’t go so far as to call us “trash”.  But let’s face it, a lot of times there’s not much going on in us that isn’t trash, or I guess I’ll call it sin.  After we’re in the next we cover ourselves with Jesus and God’s amazing grace.  We learn to love God and love others.  And before long we develop into a rich fertile Christ follower.  Then we can remove ourselves from the pile and go out and help others grow.  And just like soil we eventually end up back in the compost pile, because we are always changing and growing to become even more like Christ.  CCC, bring your trash and compost with the rest of us!