It is common in our culture today for people to view organizations and institutions with suspicion. People, especially younger generations, are increasingly looking to “authentic relationships” and small groups of family, friends, and colleagues to find meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and contentment.
Unfortunately, that mentality has infiltrated the church as well. Although there are some good things to be found in this way of living, it has also led some believers to question whether there is a place in today’s world for the organized church. Many have challenged or even abandoned the need for engaging in real face to face ways with other believers.
Below, I want to offer five reasons that you (and I) need the church—five reasons that the church is a necessity for solid, growing, mature believers in Jesus that cannot be rejected without grave consequences.
1. You Need the Church to KNOW God Rightly
God has revealed himself to his people, and he has done so in three way. First of all, God has revealed certain things about himself in creation. The Bible says that in nature, among other things, God has shown his glory, his wisdom, his character, his nature, his provision for his creatures. Secondly, God reveals himself in his word—the scriptures, the bible. Finally, and most fully, God has shown himself to us in his son, Jesus. When we look to Jesus, we see God fully and perfectly
We are able to see God in creation on our own—by ourselves. We are also able to read and study the scriptures on our own—and we can even understand them on our own. However, we also sometimes misunderstand them on our own. This is why we need the church. In fact, very few of the books of the Bible were written to individual people to be understood by individual people. Both the Old and New Testaments are full of books written to either the community of Israel or to churches.
The point is that God has revealed himself to people, but he has revealed himself to his people—the church—and we need one another to understand his word rightly. We need each other to correct our misunderstandings, our biases, our ignorance of certain parts of the scriptures, and our perspectives. You need to be regularly engaged in bible study groups so that you can learn from others and others can learn from you. Right now at FBCF, those groups are available on Sunday mornings at 9:30, Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 10:00, Wednesday nights at 7:00, in late night college bible studies, and in other informal groups and times.
You also need to regularly hear the word preached. God is clear that the bible is not just given to be read and studied. God also gave it to his people with the intention that it be preached. The Holy Spirit works through the preached word in an extraordinary way. You need to prioritize gathering together with other believers on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights to hear the word preached.
2. You Need the Church to LOVE God Rightly
You also need the church in order to love God rightly or properly. In Hebrews 3:12-14, God charges his people, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you and evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”
You need other believers to help you continue following God. You need other believers to help you continue holding fast to the Lord who has bought you and saved you. It is easy for our hearts to turn aside and grasp onto things other than God. The Old Testament is full of examples of the people of Israel doing just that. The New Testament also contains examples of those who turned away from the Lord and made shipwreck of their faith.
Obviously the Holy Spirit is active in the hearts of his people, and God will ultimately keep all those who are his delivering them safely on the final day. But, he uses means to do that. He uses his word. He uses prayer. He also uses his church. A coal by itself separated from others will quickly go out, but that same coal lying in a pile of other coals will stay bright and burning for a long time. Likewise, you need other believers in your life to help you stay warm and alive for the Lord. You need to prioritize the church for this very purpose.
3. You Need the Church to FOLLOW God Rightly
Related to the last point, you also need the church to help you follow God rightly. Later in the book of Hebrews, God says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Heb. 10:24-25)
The Holy Spirit not only uses other believers to help us stay focused on and devoted to God; he also uses other believers to help encourage us to live like his people in the world. If we are honest, we would all agree that it is often hard to live as a follower of Jesus in our world. It is often hard to resist the temptation to live the way the world does. This is one of the reasons God has given us the gift of his church.
As members of FBCF, we have joined together under our church’s covenant to become members not only of a corporate group but as members of each other. We have committed ourselves to each other. We have taken on responsibilities toward each other, and we have also submitted ourselves to one another. We have mutual expectations from and to one another—to encourage and be encouraged, to pray for and be prayed for, to hold accountable and be held accountable. You need the church in your life to help you stay faithful to God in these ways.
4. You Need the Church to MODEL God Rightly
You also need the church to model God rightly. One of the callings you have as a follower of Jesus is to live the gospel out in various ways among your believing and unbelieving family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. Without the church, it is almost impossible for you to do this.
The church gives you ample opportunities to be patient with other believers (and to have others be patient with you), to bear with other believers (and to be borne with), to confess sin to other believers (and to be confessed to), to forgive other believers (and to be forgiven), to serve other believers (and to be served).
You need the church and the family relationships it provides to live the gospel out in these real ways—to model for those around us how God treats his people. As we do this consistently, the world around us will take notice. However, even if the world around us does not take notice, God will be glorified—but, you can’t glorify God in this way without the church.
5. You Need the Church to SERVE God Rightly
Finally, you need the church to serve God rightly.
God has gifted each of his children in general and specific ways. These gifts are meant to be used within the context of a local church. As all the members of a particular church come together recognizing and using their individual gifts, the whole and each of the members are strengthened in ways that they couldn’t be if they were not joined together.
You need the church to serve you, but you also need the church to rightly use the gifts that God has given you.
I have only listed five foundational reasons that we need the church here. Doubtless, we could come up with others. Feel free to add other reasons that we need the church in the comments below.
I also want to say, that this goes both ways. It is true that you need the church. But, it is equally true that he church needs you if you are a follower of Jesus. That will be the topic of a future post here—“Five Reasons the Church Needs You.”
