Four Reasons to Join a Local Church
Last year at TCM Baptist Church the students went through great book by Sam Allberry ‘Why Bother With Church’ which gives a great overview of the doctrine of church. It lists some things that church is and why it’s so important:
- It’s an intentional gathering of God’s people — what they called ‘the assembly’ in the Old Testament — not a building or a denomination!
- It’s an outpost in space and time: an expression of God’s universal and eternal kingdom at a particular time in a particular place;
- It’s a family where brothers and sisters spend time together and support each other;
- It’s an embassy, where God’s kingdom is represented to the world;
- It’s the bride of Jesus: where those who Jesus loves prepare themselves to meet him again.
They are some pretty special descriptions of church and in themselves should be inspiring you to get involved in local church already!
But why you should go to church and commit to it?
Bad Reasons
Before we get there, there are bad reasons to join a local church which I wanted to quickly mention:
- Free food
Now Jesus almost always met with people over food. I don’t want to knock food. And all good Christian gatherings include food, so that’s great. But the quality and quantity of student lunches, or coffee that is served, should not be one of your top reasons for attending church! - Lots of fun
You will definitely will and should have fun at church, not knocking that! But again, the fun activities and experiences shouldn’t be a top reason for going to church. - Friends
It’s great to have good friends that to go to church with, and many people have beeen introduced to Jesus through being invited with a friend to church, that’s great! But following where your friends are isn’t a good reason to go to church. It’s not a social club. - Consumer mindset
Entertaining speakers or great music can help a church engage with people at its services, which is great. But once more, this shouldn’t be one of the reasons to go to church, to be entertained or to feel good about yourself. Yes, once we understand the gospel it will improve our joy in life considerably, but attending church because it helps you feel good about yourself isn’t a great reason to go.
Ephesians 4:11–16 helps us to understand why we should go to church and commit to it .
At the beginning of chapter 4 Paul says
“then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” v1
So the rest of the book, including 4:11–16, is all about how we should live in light of God’s saving of us outlined in chapters 1–3.
1. Church is where you grow into spiritual maturity
Christ gave the church that his people would be equipped and built up for a purpose:
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. v13
That is to reach unity in faith and knowledge of Jesus, and to become mature and more like Jesus himself.
Romans 10:17 tells us how we can get faith and grow in faith:
So faith and knowledge of Jesus come hand in hand through the sound teaching of the Word of God: as we learn more about him, we grow in faith in him
Yes you can get teaching online or through books, but teaching from a pastor or Elder at a church who has gone through training and experience, will ensure you receive this regularly, and can interact and ask questions too.
This is why it’s so important to have sound teaching from the Bible at a local church: accurate teaching from The Bible is the only way to know the truth about God and His salvation plan for us.
Don’t be like the easily swayed child of v14 who is led whichever way by shallow teaching that just makes them feel good. Grow into spiritual maturity by attending a church with solid Bible teaching that urges you on in faith that you would know Jesus more.
2. Church is where you are discipled
There’s a great list in v11 of who Jesus has given to be part of the local church in order to do this equipping:
- Apostles are those who were commissioned by Christ himself to spread the gospel — directly to us by their written words in the New Testament;
- Prophets are those who communicate a message from God appropriate for a situation facing the church;
- Evangelists are those who preach the gospel to those who haven’t heard it;
- Pastors are those who lead and care for the people of the church;
- Teachers are those who teach the word of God to the church, often as they pastor.
Christ has given these people to the local church for a reason: to help you be equipped and built up. So attending and committing to a church is an essential way of being equipped as a believer and growing in faith in a personal way.
Older, more experienced Christians can offer advice; differently gifted Christians can offer wisdom and teaching; other Christians can offer counsel and support in difficult times.
3. Church is where you build up the body
Not only are you discipled and built up in church, but you disciple and build up too. You need the church and the church needs you
Notice the idea of body parts in v16:
If you lost your legs, your hands wouldn’t be able to function as well; if you lost your eyes, your feet wouldn’t know which way to walk; if you lost the muscles in your neck, your eyes would have a limited view.
As Christians, we all have a part to play in God’s kingdom through the church and every part is important and linked to all the other parts. All are equal and all are needed.
Maybe Christ has given you to be part of a local church as an evangelist, or a pastor? And even if your gifting isn’t in those categories, we can all speak the truth in love to build others up:
Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. v16
Just as we are built up, Christ has given us to the church to build others up too.
Church is a safe place where we can speak the truth in love : a place where hard words are exchanged as we all confess our sin under Christ and stand before him redeemed.
Church is a place where we are supported and support others: emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially.
Church is a place where the love of Christ is shown supernaturally every Sunday between his people.
So get involved by not only attending, but serving and praying for a local church.
4. Church is where you get to love Christ more
Church enables us to grow in faith and knowledge of Christ and as we know Christ better, and we learn of His great love for us in dying for us even when we were sinners and His enemies, we will love Him more.
And as we know and love Him more, we will love others more.
Now of course we can love others without church — and many non-Christians certainly do have love for others thanks to God’s common grace. But it is in church, as we know and love God more through teaching and building each other up, that we are really spurred on to good works and loving others.
1 John 4:19 says that we love because God loved us first:
The more we know of God’s love for us, the more we will let that love spill out through our lives: to the world around us but especially within the church, between fellow believers.
There’s a reason churches are known for doing good: they know the all-surpassing love of God and it flows out of them.
So don’t miss out on the local church. Find a good church where you can serve, build up, and grow in faith through Biblical teaching, and commit to it.
Because church isn’t about you, it’s about Christ.
It’s not about how you can look good or feel good, but about how we understand our relationship with Jesus and live as his followers.
It’s not about what you can get or what you can experience, but about how you can serve God and serve others.
It’s where we learn more about and trust more in Jesus, so we can build each other up and be tools of God’s love to each other, that He alone would be glorified.
The church is where the greatest miracle of all happens: people dead in their sins become followers of Jesus Christ.
As Sam Alberry says in the book: “nothing more important happens in your town than what happens in the church”.
I attend TCM Baptist Church in Lincoln and am a deacon there. This was taken from a talk I prepared for the students of the University of Lincoln Christian Union.
