In polls with a political purpose, it is astounding to hear the significant number of people who claim to be Christians who also said they hadn’t been to church in years or even decades. Is being a vital part of a church’s life and ministry necessary or even important for a Christian? Isn’t it enough to have a personal relationship with Christ, trusting Him for the forgiveness of your sins out of your death and for the gift of His righteousness into His life?
From the beginning, God saved individuals in a group. Noah and his family with him were saved out of the flood and onto dry land. Moses and all Israel with him were brought out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. God sent Judah into exile together and brought them home together. The promises of Pentecost were for believers and their children. Lydia was saved and her household with her. In his letters, the apostle Paul addressed individuals as part of the church he was writing to. God saves individuals but always together with others.
Paul describes the local, visible church as a body and individual believers as parts of that body (1 Corinthians 12). A Christian can no more be apart from a local church than a foot can be apart from the body. If it is, the foot will die and the body will be severely impaired. The part must be fully involved with the whole body and the whole body must be fully involved with the part for everything to work as it should (Ephesians 4). We each have gifts from Christ that the church needs and needs that Christ meets only through His church. We each must have people around us who will encourage us in what is true and right and who will discourage us in what is false and wrong. We need to serve others in these same ways. Believers both need the church and are needed by the church.
Christian fellowship is the primary way God applies to us, through the Holy Spirit, the benefits Christ accomplished for us. Jesus and Paul routinely went into Jewish churches (synagogues) to teach and preach. Paul instructed the churches to gather together to read his letters, not pass them around for each to read individually. He assumed that the church would be together when they celebrated the Lord’s Supper, not doing this individually or as families. The book of Acts indicates that Christians regularly gathered together for prayer. All the means God uses to bring people to faith and to build people in faith are primarily experienced not individually but together as a church; namely, the word and sacraments, both with prayer and all in fellowship (see Acts 2:42).
No church is perfect and, if I found a perfect church, I wouldn’t join it because I’d ruin it! There are no perfect churches but, by God’s grace, there is at least one good church in most localities. Let me suggest a way to find one. First, if you have a church connection and you’ve been unfaithful in your participation, pray that the Lord will give you grace to become faithful and then resolve to begin this Sunday. Second, if you don’t have a church connection, select some to visit. Ask around for recommendations or, with care, look online. Visit each church on your list once and then narrow it down to two or three. Visit these for a month each, commit yourself to one of them and then fulfill your commitment diligently. In faith, expect God’s blessing to you in the church and through you to the church.
As you visit each church, ask for documents that describe the principles and practices of that church. These are often available online. Be sure to find a church that, in principle and practice, looks to the Holy Spirit speaking in the Bible as the only authority for what we are to believe and how we are to behave. Every good thing flows from that; no good thing comes without it. Talk to people about why they go to this church and how they are blessed and are serving. Make sure that this church has what you need including ways to use your gifts to serve. In all of this, pray that the Lord will instruct your mind and incline your heart to the church He wants you to be a part of.
Are you a part of Christ and His church or apart from Christ and His church? To be apart from the church is to be apart from Christ. St. Augustine said, “No one can have God as his father who does not have the church as his mother”. To be a part of Christ is to be a part of His body, the church. Get fully involved in a good local church for the blessing of your soul, the good of that church, the prosperity of your community and the glory of God.
Kit Swartz Teaching Elder Emeritus, RPC Oswego, NY Ruling Elder, retired, RPC Fulton, NY
