Read the series.
We’ve looked at the need for you be an active part of your local assembly. We’ve toyed with some ideas, based on your gifts and abilities. Now we could use some help in thinking of things we haven’t thought of yet, and in evaluating the thoroughness of what we’re doing.
Read the series.
I’ve suggested that you ought to be part of a local church assembly, and that you ought to be active, not passive, in your membership there. So what does that look like?
Read the series.
I’ve suggested in the earlier posts in this series that you ought to be part of a local church, an assembly of (admittedly broken) believers—that reasons for not doing that are invalid, and that those same reasons actually call for serious commitment, for becoming an active, registered member.
OK, now that you’re a member, what’s next? What’s the point of belonging to a church?
Why?
Why do you go to church?
Because it’s Sunday, and that’s what we do on Sundays?
Or maybe because you need something to hang onto if you’re going to make it through another week? A Bible verse, a thought from a sermon, an encouraging line in a song?
I’d like to suggest that you may be doing it wrong. Bear with me here.
Let’s get back to the beginning. God has graciously gathered his people into a body he calls the Church.
Why did he pick that name?
Church. In the language of the New Testament, it means “gathering” or “assembly.”
Read the series.
We’ve noted that some people resist committing to a local church, and I think we’ve demonstrated that their reasons for doing so are short-sighted. Even in a broken world with broken institutions full of broken people, surrounding yourself with your fellow travelers—and committing to them—is not only worth it, but it’s a mark of personal and social health.
So why get involved? Several reasons.
I’d like to begin a brief series on what our relationship should be with our local church. Like any culture, our culture—early 21st-century American conservative evangelicalism—has its strengths and its weaknesses, its sore spots and its blind spots. I think there are some elements in our church culture that have greatly improved on the way things used to be done—improved in the sense of becoming more in line with biblical teaching—but I think there are also some important elements that we tend to de-emphasize.
So a few posts on some of those.
To begin with, I’d like to talk about the importance of church membership.
“This article shares data from Inside the Urban Church—a Barna report created in partnership with World Impact—to further explore what role the church has in the city.” - Barna
“Small churches have always been and will always be the most common, most resilient and most adaptable expression of the body of Christ.” - C.Leaders
“Measuring attendance, giving, staff levels, and several other metrics in 2022, he found that after all the regulations had been lifted …there was little to no discernible difference between churches where there had been lots of restrictions and those where there had been almost none.” - CToday
“They are numerous, and they are located in the heart of places with lots of people…. I wish I could write that these churches will make a comeback, but it’s still an unrealized possibility.” - Sam Rainer
