Being part of a church

Abba San

Abba San

Legacy of Elijah [LoE] - Proud Grandfather
Seems there is some interest on a couple of forums in having a discussion on belonging to a church or Christian fellowship. Feel free to share your experiences and opinions but try to also include some sense of, "What does God say about..." it.

One verse that comes to mind is:

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Hebrews 10:25 (NLT)

Sounds like God says we should not neglect meeting together. It doesn't specify how that meeting should look - but that we should be meeting together.
 
Acts 2:1-4 Please look it up in your favorite version, but basically they were all there together. In accord with one another, praying together when the Holy Spirit came upon them. They were together, not at at home having an individual church service. There is power in the meeting together of God's people. Yes shut ins or others may not be able to make it, but that is when we take the church to them. It is not just the Pastors job to do visitation, it is the responsibility of the whole of the fellowship. If someone is laid on your heart in prayer take 2 or more together to visit. This too is a part of fellowship together.
 
ursen said:
It is not just the Pastors job to do visitation, it is the responsibility of the whole of the fellowship. If someone is laid on your heart in prayer take 2 or more together to visit. This too is a part of fellowship together.
Click to expand...

that brings up a very good point, and perhaps a semi-related side topic.

How do you know when someone has stopped coming to services? How long do you wait to contact them? who contacts them?

Our church does a shepherding program overseen by our Connections Pastor. A group of volunteers each take ~25 people (obviously, working with families makes this number much smaller) and takes the time to get to know each of them, pray with them, watch for them. If I notice that someone (or family) hasn't been to service in 3 weeks, I call them, mail a card, or drop by to make sure everything's okay.

I was surprised what a difference this could make - these families are just waiting for someone to approach them and show honest concern and caring. I've had two different families open up to me and share some serious problems they were working through, and nobody else in the church family (except the pastors they have chosen to share the details with) knows.

Obviously, with these kinds of programs, trust is a huge concern, and I only share the information they have specifically allowed me to share, and only with the pastors and elders that they chose - but I did stress the importance of having additional prayer partners. In most cases, the information I give to the prayer partners is "the Smith family would like your prayer support." or "The Smith family appreciates your continued prayers on their behalf and report (whatever change)." It's been a nice mechanism to make sure the prayer team feels important and realizes the value of their efforts, as well.
 
That is a fine strategy. In many of the larger churches small groups are the mechanism for keeping track. In the past, Sunday School classes took care of that function. As long as it is being taken care of.
 
1 Corinthians 12-14

Spiritual gifts are provided for building up the Church. Hard to do that when you have isolated yourself from the body.

Specifically:
1 Corinthians 14:12
So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.
 
That is so true - spiritual gifts are specifically for building up the body, the church - not simply to be exercised for our own benefit.

Related to that is, we need all those gifts - all the parts of the body:

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 1 Corinthians 12:21 (NIV)

We really do need each other.
 
I love this thread!
I wholely agree with bringing 'church' to the shut-in, and also that you don't have to have a church building to have a community. I like what the pastor did with the bus in The Apostle. (anyone else see this move? love it!)

I'll just start off with:
every "one another" verse. Can't do this alone, and I would even think some of them are specifically for other believers. Looking forward to what other folks come up with and my search through God's Word for more contributions.
 
I really enjoyed The Apostle - an interesting movie.

You're right - we can't do it alone and we were never meant to. Not church - not life.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV)
 
I hear from friends often they don't want to go to church because it is full of hypocrites.

As Matt Chandler would say, "It's worse than that." The church is full of wolves. People's who sole motive is to destroy the faith and steal from the flock.

Yet we are called to go. The elders are called to protect the flock. The whole bunch of us sinners saved by the grace of God shown through Christ on the cross.

Offtopic : Great recent example of transparency in the Body.
http://www.qideas.org/blog/a-telling-confession-off-i10-eastbound.aspx
 
A church fill of sinners - that's what we have where I go to church.

I've heard the "full of hypocrites' argument, too. I usually just tell them, "I know. I'm glad there are no hypocrites where you work, on your softball team, in your neighborhood..."
 
A church full of sinners - that's what we have where I go to church.

I've heard the "full of hypocrites" argument, too. I usually just tell them, "I know. I'm glad there are no hypocrites where you work, on your softball team, in your neighborhood..."
 
Last edited:
I think its also important to note that you dont have to go to a church to go to church.

I'm pretty sure that the Bible doesn't "church" for us in that way.
 
Our pastor jokes about the hypocrite thing as well. He usually tosses in a quick jab about the "they just want my money" attitude and says he hopes that nobody goes to the gas station, restaurant, or grocery this week...because they all need your money to keep the lights on, too!

But to be fair, he also adds on that he wants the hypocrites in church - how else do they learn? And he makes a big point that visitors shouldn't feel compelled to give in the offering - the membership of our church takes the responsibility on ourselves to keep the doors open and the bathrooms clean for our guests. He doesn't want us to give in the offering because of guilt or obligation.
 
Churches are full of hypocrites, traitors, sinners and many other "labels" that we can tack on. So how great is our God, knowing we get mercy and redemption through Jesus instead of our just death.

The argument of not going to a church didn't even exist during the time of the writing of the New Testament. From what I know and have studied, writings by Paul, Peter and others almost assume that you’re part of the church or body - that it's just a part of being a Christian.

What's changed through the centuries has been our interpretation and application of the local church. There still is only one Church, of which Jesus is the head. But there are local bodies, or churches that meet the current cultural needs and drivers of a society. I mean, read through Acts, you don't see people going to a large building once a week to fellowship with others. However, we have a need in today’s world to base out of a central location to host events that meet the needs of others and satisfy what a local church is.

Unfortunately, many have been burned in churches and abstain. Or they do the opposite, and go to a church due to “religious” practices. As if we could earn God’s favor?! Instead of going for the purposes it exists and loving others through our service. Church is just a weird beast these days, and with some preachers spouting “religious self help” it doesn’t help matters.

Regardless, Acts 2:42-47 is the best example of a local church I can find. Whether this is done in a central building, someone's home, or in an underground church in China is irrelevant. So long as teaching, fellowship, sharing, meeting needs, and prayer occur there.
 
Christ came to save sinners. If I was perfect I wouldn't need to be saved. Therefore everyone in church are sinners, but at least they recognize that they need the grace of God.
 
Patriot said:
Paul would disagree. If you are a believer and living in sin, then it is the responsibility of the church to discipline. (1 Corinthians 5)
Click to expand...

Probably a good argument of why people don't go to church right there. ;-) Who in the church on any given day should not be disciplined? Yet they all aren't. Its the in clique that doles out the discipline while shutting down any discussion that they don't agree with.

(Copied from "Proposition 19" thread)
 
Avesther said:
Probably a good argument of why people don't go to church right there. ;-) Who in the church on any given day should not be disciplined? Yet they all aren't. Its the in clique that doles out the discipline while shutting down any discussion that they don't agree with.

(Copied from "Proposition 19" thread)
Click to expand...

This is where the modern church fails by trying to avoid the necessity of church discipline. Paul addressed this to the Corinthians by making the distinction between those in public sin and non-repentant vs. the Body of sinners.

It's always the responsibility of the Body to discipline those in open unrepentant sin.
 
Our church is 141 years old. I was looking through old, old records and found - a hundred years ago - where an applicant for membership was refused. He had left his previous church because he was confronted about sin in his life and left without repentance and forgiveness.

We certainly don't do that anymore. One reason there is so much church hopping - people refuse to work things out. They just move on.
 
In the context of being part of the church, the way I see this because I have seen this happen is that discipline runs in one direction and if you are not part of the in-clique, you are the one disciplined. If you are not part of the clique and try and bring up something regarding somebody in the clique, you are stifled. When I think of hypocrisy in the church, its this type of behavior I think about. Not the ego inflating talk on a sport team that leads to hypocrisy. The type of hypocrisy I see in a church is the type that drives people away. Its the people in the church who say they don't show favoritism yet don't talk to anybody but their circle of friends at the end of the service, who shun the people who can't offer as much when offering happens, shun the people who bring the lowest cost brownies to the church function.

I am talking about a fundamental hypocrisy that is core to ones believes. And then to make matters worse, when people finally accept that maybe they were wrong in how they were treating people, saying things etc etc ... in attempting to make amends they come across completely disingenuous. Like they are doing so because they are obligated to not because they actually want to.

Maybe the best way to put it is: The worst things of high school find a way into church.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top