Articles

Why Join a Church?

As we move forward as a church, we must start to partner together to bring the Gospel to our community. Many churches call this membership, but we can’t find that in Scripture. We do see, however, in Philippians 1:3-5, Paul calling the local church a “partnership in the Gospel”. This article is meant to address the reasons why we are calling people of Harmony Church to join with us in partnership over the next month.

Aside from the Gospel impacting you as the individual to belong to a community, why should you join a church? After all, attending Sunday morning service and small group during the week is enough, right? You volunteer your time, give financially, and invest in others’ lives, all without signing any documents, or submitting to any authority. So why should you join a church? Other than the above-mentioned reason, there are six other basic reasons for you:

1. Joining a church brings glory to God.
2. Joining a church is Biblical.
3. Joining a church stifles individualistic Christianity.
4. Joining a church more effectively brings people to Christ.
5. Joining a church reveals false Gospels.
6. Joining a church builds up the church.

Don’t believe me? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Here’s some food for thought on each point.

1.Joining a church brings glory to God.

1 Peter 2:12 says: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.” Matthew 5:16 says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

It seems that these can be carried out individually, right? Well, no. God means for us to love one another in such a way that people who are not following Jesus can identify us as followers of Christ. Check out John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jesus is talking to a band of brothers: a small church, so to speak. A group of people covenanted together for the Gospel, intent on impacting their culture for Christ. It is in this setting that “loving one another” leads to “all men knowing we are His disciples”.

We are adopted into the Father’s family as Sons and Daughters of God (Ephesians 1:5). To be estranged from the family, to be individual, is to separate ourselves from that family….including the Father and Son. This is not only undesirable, but it is sinful.

2. Joining a church is Biblical.

If you haven’t seen that by now, you’ll definitely see it as we move forward through the other four reasons. The most quoted verse concerning church covenant is Hebrews 10:19-25.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 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.

Many people use this passage as an admonition for Sunday morning attendance. I want to go ahead and get rid of that notion. “Holding unswervingly”, “spurring one another on toward love and good deeds and “encouraging one another” do not efficiently happen in a single 90-minute meeting. It is only a continual covenanted community that effectively holds on to hope, spurs one another towards Love, and encourages one another through tough times and good times. This section of Scripture is about belonging to a local church, not about sitting and watching a show for an hour and a half. We can consider Acts 2:42-47 or Acts 4:32-37 to see effective local communities that fit this description of “meeting together”. They met continually, had things in common, devoted themselves to proper doctrine, and there was grace upon them all. Joining and committing to a single, local community is Biblical.

3.Joining a church stifles individualistic Christianity.

We realize that the Christian life is impossible by ourselves. We need the Trinitarian God to stay holy and in right relationship with Him. But just as important, we need one another as well. When we join a church community, we are holding hands in order to love one another, to know one another, and to be known by one another. We cannot live the Christian life on our own, and we as individual Christ-followers must band together with others to follow Christ. Mark Dever states in Nine Marks of a Healthy Church that “The Christian life is not just about you and those you are personally trying to reach with the Gospel. God also intends you to be a committed part of helping to make disciples out of the flock of sheep He has already saved.”

The Spirit of God in us as individuals not only allows us the grace needed to keep ourselves aligned with the Gospel, but it also empowers us to assist others in their walk with Christ. This assistance is done through a covenanted community that manifests as a local church family.

4.Joining a church more effectively brings people to Christ.

The local church is, by its very design, an organization dedicated to the mission of God in its local context. We, at Harmony Church, are dedicated to seeing Greenville know Christ more fully. We advance the Gospel by working together in order to present it those people in our city that have yet to hear its Good News, and also by manifesting the Gospel physically by the things we do and the lives we live from Monday to Sunday.

Those who are not yet Christ-followers may come to know Him by the way we live in community. We are sinners, but as God’s gracious Spirit works in us, our lives will slowly conform to the Savior and will bring others to a saving knowledge of Him.

5.Joining a church reveals false Gospels.

In a world surrounded by dependent truths and Gospel-opposing worldviews, it is necessary that we contend for the faith, as Jude exhorts us to do in Jude 1:3. Even among ‘Christians’, we see false and impostor Gospels. How can we prevent ourselves as individuals, as sinful beings, cling to the Good News that we heard first? In community. In community, correction more easily occurs, the Gospel is better shielded from negative influence, and we expose the lie that Christians are perfect people who put their faith in themselves. Instead, as a community following Christ, we lift up the revelation of the Living Word (Jesus) by the Written Word (Scripture).

6.Joining a church builds up the church.

Yes, joining a church will help you stay truer to the Gospel. Other people will come around you and assist you as you work through doubts and sins. But as you repent, and conform to Christ, you can give back: the Spirit has gifted you as well. You are not gifted for yourself, but instead are given the gifts you have been given in order to invest them in the local church community. We have the opportunity in corporate to hold firm to one another. By covenanting with a local body, we are committing to the leaders at that church, and indeed to Jesus as the Head of all churches, that we intend to be committed in attendance, financial giving, prayer, and service. We allow fellow believers to have greater expectations of us in these areas, and we make it known that we are responsible of, to, and for the local body. As we committ to the local body, we move from the consumers to the committed, and in the process, the Gospel is lifted and Jesus is glorified. Partnership is not an affiliation, as it is with the local gym or Boys and Girls Club. It is a regular responsibility that we will be held accountable for when we face our King.