“Provoking Christian Insights” series

Part 35

Why should I be interested in church?

In the May 10^th, Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, a New Washington, Ohio, Methodist pastor penned a guest column entitled, “Be prepared to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you,” a story related to Pentecost being celebrated Sunday. It was a particularly good article. My daughter was singing at Pastor Brad Smith’s First Christian church on Sunday and I got to hear him read, and quote from the article from the pulpit. Which begs two questions, 1. Why church? and 2. Why me?

Today, many people will go through life and never darken a church’s doorway unless they are attending a friends wedding. When I was growing up in the 1940’s, just about everyone went to church and those who didn’t weren’t highly thought of. A lot has changed over the span of three decades. A lot of our young people only find God when they are sent off to war and are terrified of getting killed and begin to pray.

Some of us are pretty sure that we are “good guys” even if we aren’t particularly religious. Mark Galli, managing editor of Christianity today (Oct. 23, 2001) writes; “It is easy to pursue evil if one believes oneself pure. It is impossible if one believes all morality is relative. It is demanding (but possible) to fight evil while nurturing an abiding sense of one’s own failings.” I am reminded of the woman on the phone telling of all the local gossip she had heard around town.

Today we witness a political community that is far from pure. Elected officials in Ohio began “partying” the day they took office and are only sorry because they got caught. Even our great “One Nation Under God,” the United States, the “world’s last and best hope,” has succumbed to self-interest, and to political and economic greed.

Why Church?

Although the framers of our Constitution didn’t want to separate God from government, they didn’t want one church running the government. Somehow we managed to push Church over in a corner in the 60’s and things went to a place that rhymes with “swell” in a hurry. History does not reflect a simple pattern of good versus evil. “Our failure to recognize our own faults and the original sin within us will only make us more self-righteous and make for future injustice,” wrote Rev. J.R. Horton, Jr., pastor Albany American Baptist / Congregational Church.

Romans 3:9 says, “there is no one who is righteous, not even one,” and Romans 3:23 declares “all have sinned, and fallen short of the Glory of God.” It takes courage to recognize the evil, which lies buried in our own hearts. Galli writes; “It is easy to pursue evil if one believes oneself pure. It is impossible if one believes all morality is relative. It is demanding to fight evil while nurturing an abiding sense of one’s own failings.”

Horton wrote, “We live in a culture that is radically focused on the individual. “Me,” “My” and “I” so strongly governs our society that morally almost anything goes (the only question is whether both parties are “consenting”), that no one is to be offended in any way and if anyone is offended, it’s because he, or she, is simply narrow minded or intolerant. In such a culture, one of the first questions a person asks is “What’s in it for me?”

“Therefore, churches, as with other institutions, face the problem of explaining why it’s important to become a member of its fellowship. With church, thought, what makes this the more difficult is that church is about something (Someone) far greater than any one person or even any group of people.

“In times past, people came to churches and their leaders to answer the question, “What must I do to be saved?” Over the centuries the answer really hasn’t changed, even if the question has. So why join the church?

In her newspaper column, Pamela Sayre wrote: “Get ready, be ready!” Most of us aren’t ready. Sayre continues; “On the Day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus’ after Jesus resurrection, the believers were meeting together in one place. (How many of us are regularly meeting together?). Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting. The, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them, Everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:1-4).

Sayer continues; “On that day so long ago, on what became the first Christian Pentecost, God sent the Holy Spirit and changed everything.” Where did God come? The answer was where the Christians were meeting together. Why did God come? God sent His Spirit to empower His church just as He had promised He would come.

Sayer goes on to ask the question, actually a series of questions asked of her during a meeting. “What would your church look like of the Holy Spirit blew in and settled in on it? What would your church look like if the Holy Spirit set everyone’s heart ablaze? …Not only what would it look like, but what would it act like and sound like?”

Get ready and be ready

Real Christians have believed from their very inception that salvation must be personally appropriated (you have to get it yourself). Each individual must answer to God, must come to repentance and faith in Jesus for themselves, and ultimately must return to God.

Horton writes, “Being the societal creatures that we are, the early church recognized immediately the importance of banding together.” Individuals who could give a compelling testimony of God’s grace and salvation were the ones who belonged in the fellowship. To be a Christian is, in essence, a work of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin, show the love of God, and change the basic relationship of the individual to God.”

“All this is within the heart of the individual person, and no one can take it away, or change it in any fashion. But it is also the work of the Holy Spirit to immediately join the individual with others of like conviction. To be a Christian starts with believing that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead, and to confess that ‘Jesus is Lord (God)’ within the mouth, meaning the only God to whom allegiance belongs. But with that confession comes an obligation to obey the Lord, and, resulting from obedience and the aid of the Holy Spirit, to begin a process of character formation into the ‘image’ of Jesus.”

“Our culture today dislikes the notion of commitment, obedience and dependence, and so it should be no wonder that church membership should be low on the priority list. There is more to be said:

“First, there is strength in numbers. A single branch on fire quickly extinguishes itself, but with tow or more branches burns brighter and longer. In the same way we need each other to strengthen ourselves, to encourage one another in times of trouble, and to hold each other accountable for properly following God, and not least to join in worshipping the Lord of love and our salvation.”

“Second, as Jesus noted, the Father seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. Corporate worship is essential to spiritual development. Both the heart and the mind are refreshed and renewed.”

“Thirdly, joining a church allows the individual to accomplish much more in God’s service than could be done alone, and with less strain on any on person. We will get tired, but together we will go far beyond what we could do on our own.”

“Fourth, and this is of crucial importance, participating in church life will, if we will permit it, reveal just how far we still have to go to become perfect. In other words, our weaknesses and sins will be revealed. Churches are by no means perfect, comprised as they are of individuals of who are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. Participating in church life will make a person aware of his or her own falults as well as the faults of others. This is a good thing, even if painful,” Horton adds.

“To actively serve God in a church will produce all the fruits of the Spirit, because those fruits will develop out of the troubles of life and growing relationships. God does not call us to convenience or comfort but to love in spite of hard times. Stuart Briscoe has observed that pastors need the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. Such is the reality of church life…but the rewards are eternal.”

The church still isn’t perfect

“God calls us not to some romantic vision of the perfect church (only to depart it when it disappoints), but to grow because of the imperfect church. God teaches us what commitment is about God shows us what His Son had to put up with but remained faithful to the end. When e join a church, we make a covenant with God and with the church to worship God, learn from God through the church, and serve God by serving those in the church and those outside the church. There is no substitute for participating in the lie of a local congregation,” Horton concluded.

Sayre ended saying “Get ready, be ready! God is up to something! May the excitement of Pentecost, thbe coming of the Holy Spirit, fill our homes and places of worship! May the Holy Spirit settle lupon us! And may we follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

INSPIRATION: We all need each other. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Lets go to church (Hebrews 10:25).

Write: croneis@embarqmail.com