Saturday, May 23, 2009

Why is church important? #1

I'm reading Joshua Harris' book 'Stop Dating the Church' at the moment and it is incredibly helpful at explaining why it is so important for Christians to be committed members of a local church. These blog posts are really a collection of what Harris argues and my own thinking about it.

How is church like marriage?

This is one of the big questions Harris seeks to answer. In the Bible, Paul famously compares the relationship of a married couple to the relationship of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5). So what is the link between the church and marriage? Well, most Christians would agree that marriage is all about loving, faithful commitment. That's exactly the way Jesus treats the church... and therefore the way that we should treat it, too.

Harris says:
'The plain fact is, when we resist passion and commitment in our relationship with the church, everyone gets cheated out of God's best.
  • You cheat yourself.
  • You cheat a church community.
  • You cheat your world.' p18

And again:
'The church is the vehicle that Jesus chose to take the message of the gospel to every generation and people.' p20

If we want to follow Jesus' command to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28), we will struggle unless we are part of a church community. It's what the church is for: bringing together saved sinners to reach out to lost people. We're so much more effective together than individually. Just think about it: imagine you have one non-Christian friend called James. Now if you are the only Christian James knows, that means a lot of pressure on you to keep witnessing to him! And if you move away, he then knows no Christians in his area. But if you introduce James to some of your Christian friends from church, he can build relationships with them too, you can all witness and pray for him together, and if you move away, he still has links with a church and the people of God.

Church isn't an easy place. It is a place where sinners -saved and unsaved- gather together, and that's always going to be tough. But it is an ideal place for Christians to grow in godliness, as they hear the Bible faithfully taught... and as they are thrown into situations where they need to put into practice Jesus' teachings about loving your enemies, forgiving those who hurt you, and being humble and serving to one another. You see, every Christian could make three Christian friends and simply meet up with those friends regularly and get their spiritual 'fix' to keep them going... But in doing so, they would miss out hugely on the 'family factor' of church- being put into a room with loads of different people of all ages and backgrounds, where you don't have anything in common except Jesus, and you have to get along!

So to summarise:
  • Church is like marriage- it demands commitment
  • Church is a locus point for evangelism- in both training up and reaching out
  • Church is tough- and so it refines us

Monday, May 18, 2009

Worship

I read Barbara Hughes' chapter on 'The Discipline of Worship' in her 'Disciplines of a Godly Woman' this week for a ladies' discipleship group, and the following post is the result of our group discussion on the issues it raised.

True worship is not judged by outward appearances, but by the state of the person's heart towards God. You could sing with 100% energy, and yet not be worshipping God. You could attend church every Sunday, but if your heart is not striving to love God and obey Him, your worship is meaningless. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul makes the mistake of thinking he can worship God in the way that he wants to. He is commanded to kill all the Amalekites, including their livestock, but he keeps Agag the king alive, and keeps the best of the livestock to sacrifice to God. His motives seem fairly good, but fundamentally he was disobeying God's command, and so Samuel rebuked him.

Therefore, to worship God 'in spirit and in truth' (John 4) means that you engage both your heart and your mind. We need to worship the God of the Bible, not shape our own god from what we think God should be like. It's no use singing songs to a god that we've decided could never send anyone to hell. We wouldn't be worshipping in truth then. But similarly, there's no use being doctinally correct without engaging our hearts in real love for God and all He has done for us.

In everything we do -our work, our social time, our leisure- we can worship Christ by doing everything for Him and to please Him (Col 3:17). But does this mean that we don't need to go to church? What makes our Sunday services different from this everyday worship? Well, on Sundays we participate in corporate worship. Our corporate worship is not just singing songs together, but hearing the Bible read and preached. It is vital for us to be members of a local church for our own spiritual health and for the sake of the world. God designed us to live the Christian life as part of the Body of Christ- it's not a solo pursuit. It's much harder to stand for Jesus when you're alone in a hostile world. Knowing other Christians and meeting with them regularly helps to strengthen you and encourage you that you need to stand firm till the end. Also, hearing God's word preached can challenge you with things in your life that God wants you to change, and help you get to know God better.

The church is God's designated place for Christians to meet together, disciple each other, and send each other out into the world to preach the good news of the gospel. In one sense the church is not a physical building, but God's people all over the world. But in another sense, each local church is an important unit of God's people, and we should make every effort to commit ourselves to it. The church needs you and you need the church!

Free will

I just read Wayne Grudem's section on the concept of 'free will' in 'Systematic Theology' and wanted to post it as I found it so helpful:

'Scripture nowhere says that we are "free" in the sense of being outside of God's control... But we are nonetheless free in the greatest sense that any creature of God could be free- we make willing choices, choices that have real effects. We are aware of no restraints on our will from God when we make decisions. We must insist that we have the power of willing choice; otherwise we will fall into the error of fatalism or determinism and thus conclude that choices do not matter, or that we cannot really make willing choices. On the other hand, the kind of freedom that is demanded by those who deny God's providential control of all things, a freedom to be outside of God's sustaining and controlling activity, would be impossible is Jesus Christ is indeed 'continually carrying along things by his word of power' (Heb 1:3)... An absolute "freedom", totally free of God's control, is simply not possible in a world providentially sustained and directed by God himself.' p331