In Canada and the USA it is not unusual to meet people who claim commitment to Christ but have no commitment to a local church. Some have had a painful church experience; some have found church services too boring and/or irrelevant; some simply don't see the point of spoiling Sundays by taking the time and effort to meet with other believers.
We who are pastors too often find ourselves reminding the church that "the church needs you." In an era of declining volunteers, pastoral staff and lay leaders spend a lot of time and effort recruiting because there rarely is an abundance of people who take the initiative to volunteer to serve. I've always appreciated the Ohio pastor who told me they stopped referring to their people as volunteers and used the more biblical term of servants. The church does need volunteer/servants to function well.
However today I am thinking of the millions in North America who claim to follow Jesus, but have no time for "the church." We need to help them understand that they "need the church" as much or more than the "church needs them."
Like most students of the NT, I would affirm there is no NT concept of believers living the life of a disciple on their own. For example, after teaching the disciples about servanthood by washing their feet, Jesus then tells them how they will be identified as his disciples. "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35) The community of Christ followers is to be identified by their loving commitment to each other. Its not the church building, the services or the activities that should be the identification mark - it is the loving Christian community that is the witness to Christ. We are the church.
Most of the NT letters are addressed to a church community, not to individuals. We usually read them as though they are addressed to "me" but most often they are addressed to "we". They teach that the church is a body made up of many parts, each doing what he/she has been gifted by Christ to do. This can only happen in community - it can't happen when body parts are not connecting with each other.
Of course church communities fail to be all that Christ, the Head of the body has equipped and called them to be. It was true in Corinth, it was true in six of the seven churches of Revelation 2 & 3, it is true wherever we live now. But this does not lessen the consistent emphasis on Christians in community found throughout the New Testament.
I am like most Christians who have lived for very long in Christian churches. I have had mixed experiences. My family and I have been loved and received generous displays of love from many believers. I have also been hurt and mistreated by believers in those same churches. The church family, like every human family, is never perfect and some times terribly painful.
But it is where we are placed when we come to faith in Christ. We enter an eternal family: a Great Perfect Father; a Perfect Elder Brother (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:11) and a huge number of imperfect human brothers and sisters. Our Father and Elder Brother expect us to grow relationships with the rest of the family. We can't know them all but we can build community/family with some of them and we do this by meeting regularly. We all belong to the church universal and we all need the church local.
Presently I live in a country where over many years, thousands of believers have suffered because they were convinced that it was worth the risk of beatings and imprisonment to risk meeting together with other Christians to worship, fellowship, pray and learn. It would be impossible to explain to them why in Western countries there are many Christians who feel they don't need the church. And of course it would be impossible to point them to any Scripture that justifies this lack of involvement in a local church.
We who are pastors too often find ourselves reminding the church that "the church needs you." In an era of declining volunteers, pastoral staff and lay leaders spend a lot of time and effort recruiting because there rarely is an abundance of people who take the initiative to volunteer to serve. I've always appreciated the Ohio pastor who told me they stopped referring to their people as volunteers and used the more biblical term of servants. The church does need volunteer/servants to function well.
However today I am thinking of the millions in North America who claim to follow Jesus, but have no time for "the church." We need to help them understand that they "need the church" as much or more than the "church needs them."
Like most students of the NT, I would affirm there is no NT concept of believers living the life of a disciple on their own. For example, after teaching the disciples about servanthood by washing their feet, Jesus then tells them how they will be identified as his disciples. "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35) The community of Christ followers is to be identified by their loving commitment to each other. Its not the church building, the services or the activities that should be the identification mark - it is the loving Christian community that is the witness to Christ. We are the church.
Most of the NT letters are addressed to a church community, not to individuals. We usually read them as though they are addressed to "me" but most often they are addressed to "we". They teach that the church is a body made up of many parts, each doing what he/she has been gifted by Christ to do. This can only happen in community - it can't happen when body parts are not connecting with each other.
Of course church communities fail to be all that Christ, the Head of the body has equipped and called them to be. It was true in Corinth, it was true in six of the seven churches of Revelation 2 & 3, it is true wherever we live now. But this does not lessen the consistent emphasis on Christians in community found throughout the New Testament.
I am like most Christians who have lived for very long in Christian churches. I have had mixed experiences. My family and I have been loved and received generous displays of love from many believers. I have also been hurt and mistreated by believers in those same churches. The church family, like every human family, is never perfect and some times terribly painful.
But it is where we are placed when we come to faith in Christ. We enter an eternal family: a Great Perfect Father; a Perfect Elder Brother (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:11) and a huge number of imperfect human brothers and sisters. Our Father and Elder Brother expect us to grow relationships with the rest of the family. We can't know them all but we can build community/family with some of them and we do this by meeting regularly. We all belong to the church universal and we all need the church local.
Presently I live in a country where over many years, thousands of believers have suffered because they were convinced that it was worth the risk of beatings and imprisonment to risk meeting together with other Christians to worship, fellowship, pray and learn. It would be impossible to explain to them why in Western countries there are many Christians who feel they don't need the church. And of course it would be impossible to point them to any Scripture that justifies this lack of involvement in a local church.
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