Epaggelia

English has some wonderful uses of words. Look at collective nouns for various groups of animals. We are all familiar with a Herd of cattle, a Flock of seagulls, a School of fish and a Gaggle of geese, and less widely known is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows, a Crutch of lobsters, an Exaltation of doves and, I suppose because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls. Now consider a group of Monkeys. They are the loudest, most obnoxious, and least intelligent of all primates, and what is the proper collective noun for a group of monkeys? Believe it or not, a Congress! I’m not sure what lay in that name, but one thing I’m certain, they need a good leader. Christians are instructed to pray for their leaders. Which leads me to ask you. What is the proper collective noun for a group of Christians? Church. What does that say about us, it means: “people called out of the world and into assembly”. Yes that is right, you can’t be part of a church, while you worship in the fields, mountainside or forest, and certainly not the riverbank where there may be lots of fishing poles! Worship is loving God, and the way God wants us to love him on Sunday is in the Assembly, that is what is in our collective noun as Christians. Love Him with all your heart, soul, body and mind! That is the command of Jesus, not advice, but an authoritative mandate from our Master, see Mark 12:30 & Luke 10:27. Why would a Christian neglect the assembly? Especially when we consider the opporunity for love that is there?