The Church: What's the big deal?

As I was coming home on the bus to see my family for this long weekend, I thought how important family is to me. How much we trust them and rely on them, and how much of growing up as adults is modeled on our parents and older siblings if you have them. I think back on the first 22 years of my life and how much harder it would have been if my parents were divorced or if I had to be raised by a single parent. I realize for many people today the following scenarios are a reality and some manage to come out of it in good shape, but I feel all else equal children are better off raised by two loving parents. I realize as well for some people the grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles are or are almost as important part of their lives as their parents, or they were adopted and were never connected to their biological family. My point is not the size or composition as much as having a group of people that provide comfort and safety and guidance from cradle to adulthood and beyond is critical to being a successful person and a loving Christian. Good families are places were one is accepted for who they are and places that support you in good times and bad. Good families give tough love at times, but unconditional love as well and provide an environment to learn about and grew in Christ, where people first see the fruits of the Holy Spirit among us.

I think good families are the model which the church is based upon and which prove that the good our families provide is also provided in a church family. A good church has stability, strong leadership, accountability, is loving and compassion and protective of its flock, but also willing to hold members to account for inappropriate action. Churches like families require all members to do there part, and all members are important to the cohesion and success. 

I think for Christians that go to church what I say is obvious about a church. The problem is that while most Christians see the church family as valuable or very nearly so as your personal family, they do not treat it as such. To illustrate, if a friend of yours told you that they were going "family-shopping" because there current family always told lame jokes or did not respond to their complaints appropriately and your friend also said that he or she had found this much "cooler" family that he or she thought would be a better fit, you would think them loco. But people do the same with churches all the time. While I realize there are some important differences, if the local church functions as a Christian family then it deserves the loyalty you would give to a biological family, warts and all. 

There is another reason that the church is so critical, as to be of the body of Christ is to be a member of the church, and while in one sense the church is all Christians globally united through the Spirit, it is also the local churches that make this union practical and real as they carry out the ministries that spread and grow God's eternal word whatever it is lacking, and to fortify the hearts of those in Christ wavering and suffering. We are social beings that need community, and if we fail to commit to a true church community, what we really are saying is that we are unwilling to commit to Christ.

I realize that churches can have lots of problems and be very frustrating, but I think it is very rare that a church is so diseased as to be beyond repair. Instead one should look into their own hearts when they are having problems in their church to see what they are doing wrong, and to pray and really look to find solutions rather than excuses. For those that refuse to commit, you isolate yourself from a second family of people that will love and care and protect you. Church is not really so much the music or sermon or ministries but a group of people sharing in Christ together in a wide variety of  activities and functions. I think when you see the church as a full time commitment rather than something you do on Sunday morning, you will see a similar transformation in your relationship and faith in God.

I speak from personal experience and what people have shown me and what I have read to believe all this to be true. I find that I can forget about Christ if I don't immerse myself in serving him and glorifying God, and this is easiest done through church. I am not here to judge but only to encourage others to come experience the grace and love of Christ through the church, which he is head and leader. 

 

In closing, there are two sections of Ephesians that I think help illustrate my point and encourage you to find or commit to a group of Christians. God bless and peace be with all.

(Ephesians 4: 11-16) 

 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds [2] and teachers, [3] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, [4] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 

 

(Ephesians 5: 22-32)

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [1] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.