I found it interesting this week that in the course of a couple of days I ran across two articles addressing the importance of the church. This past Sunday, I preached from Isaiah 1. My sermon was titled: “State of the Nation Address”. What do these have to do with one another? After all the church is a New Testament entity, and Isaiah is a book of judgement and prophecy written to the nation of Israel. They seem unrelated, until you read chapter 1.
In chapter 1 as we discussed, God shares his indictment and displeasure with the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah. The nation forgot God, turned their back on him, and traded the Holy One of Israel for the gods and idols of the nations that were around them. They then continued to play the part as God’s chosen people by carrying out their religious rituals. The chosen people became a corrupt people but cloaked that in religiosity.
Thinking back through my sermon while reading these two articles about the importance of church, I began to contemplate the question I asked on Sunday morning: what might God have against the church/believer today? What indictment might he bring? I think part of it would be the way believers have begun to treat the church.
Church has been become the service we attend rather than the people. Church has become a matter of convenience (when it fits in my schedule & when I have time for it) rather than a commitment (Heb 10:24-25). I am not sure what has led to this change. As the church started in Acts 2, the believers were devoted to meeting daily together. One statistic I read several months ago used the parameters of once-a-month attendance as the definition for a “practicing Christian.”
I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound much like devotion or practicing. If we applied that same principle to our workplaces, we’d be fired and on unemployment. If we’re honest with ourselves, we show more devotion to our workplaces than we often do to the body of Christ and in some cases our own families. Understand that I am painting with a broad brush here and am not meaning to discount the daily commitment of faithful believers.
Where does this mindset stem from though? I can make connections with our love for the world and perhaps a lack of faith in the sufficiency of God and his plan. I don’t know that I can pinpoint the exact origin though and believe is probably a conglomeration of things rather than just one. What I can identify is the signs and symptoms. As believers have become less committed to the church (the body of Christ) and to the Word of God, the family has suffered.
This brings us back to the nation of Israel. As the elders forgot to pass on the stories of God’s faithfulness and mighty deeds and were not committed to teaching their children the Law, the nation of Israel suffered, the people turned from God, and they fell further and further into sin. At one point, we read that they were worse than the Canaanites (2 Chron 33:9).
The freedom in our nation I think at times has allowed believers to become spiritually stagnant. In this state, fervently instructing our children in the Word and the importance of being with the body of Christ has been replaced by selfish ambition and self-love. And the family has suffered, immensely.
The church is God’s gift to the believer. Paul says in Ephesians that the church helps to equip and edify the believer as each member carries out it’s God-given & God-gifted role, working toward spiritual maturity. As we are committed to being together and to serving one another, we find the value of the church.
Author and pastor, J. D. Greear remarked:
The most valuable earthly gift God has given to me outside of my wife is the community of the church. There are times God raises up somebody at just the right moment to speak a word of encouragement, warning, or guidance, to give a gift of love, to minister to my family & me.
J. D. Greear, “Think You Don’t Need a Church to Know Jesus? Think Again,” jdgreear.com.
I preached a sermon some time ago mentioning that when I was growing up, my family only missed church when we were direly sick (vomiting or hospitalized), when a huge snow storm prohibited our travel, or occasionally on a vacation trip. My folks instilled in me the importance of being with the body, and I’m thankful for that. I cherish my times with fellow brothers & sisters in Christ and the blessing they are to my life each week because of the involvement we have in one another’s lives.
Rather than finding an excuse or making an excuse as to why we can’t be with the body of Christ at any given time (not just Sunday morning), let’s let church be our excuse. This was the concept of the other article I read where the author commented:
When we get down to it, if you understand the importance of why we gather together each week, the church should become the “excuse” you use to miss everything else that conflicts with it, not the other way around.
Grayson Gilbert, “Church Should Be Your Excuse for Missing Everything Else,” patheos.com.
I’ve seen a pattern over my years of ministry. As believers make excuses for why they can’t be with the church on Sunday morning or can’t be involved, I’ve seen the individual suffer spiritually. Either they take a downturn when they withdraw, or they remain in the same spiritually stagnant state. Not only this, but with the excuses, I find that the family suffers as well.
The family & the church. As we are serious about our relationship with God, we take the commands to gather with the body of Christ seriously as well. As we gather, our relationship with God is further fueled, we’re equipped and encouraged by other believers, and we set ourselves up to thrive. As we do this, our family reaps an abundance of benefits spiritually and relationally. The best thing for your family is to commit not to just being in church on Sunday morning but be with the church to serve as God has gifted you. If you do, I know you’ll be richly blessed just as I have.