We live in a time in the Western Church where people are seeing less and less value in attending church. They say that God is omnipresent and in our hearts so why can’t we just be part of the invisible church? Why can’t we be Digital Disciples and just watch pastor-teachers online and fellowship in Christian forums and chat groups? Why can’t we just meet in houses in small cell groups? Indeed, it seems like a myriad of questionings and rejection of what is called traditional church.
People have issues with organized religion. I am against any kind of religion organized or not. However, for the sake of argument if organized religion has issues unorganized has far more issues. Most people I have met that claim to be part of the invisible church seem to have invisible works providing little to no impact on the community or anyone.
While small groups are good to have there is no one human cell that can live on its own for very long. Neither did God call us to be a scattering of cells, but to be one Body.
Indeed, God created one temple for an entire nation. We complain if we have to travel more than ten miles to a church when we may drive forty miles to work. Paul wrote to THE Church at Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi and Colosse. Jesus spoke to THE Church at Sardis, Philadelphia, etc. not to the numerous churches in each city.
Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. At this moment, it looks like that will be the one prayer He doesn’t get a yes answer or at least not until the Rapture. Indeed, if we are heeding the Holy Spirit that guides into all truth then we would be speaking the same thing and working in one Body because there is only one truth to every issue of life not one for you, one for me and one for the other eighty churches in town.
There is obviously a disconnect between the Head of the Church and the Church. The Head should be telling the Body what to do. When it does not we have a problem with the Body because it has been blown to pieces by error, pride, power, sin and men’s philosophies.
Since I am not in another country where if you preach less than three hours the congregation feels cheated lets try to do a quick look at why corporate Church is a good thing.
A Place To Be Encouraged
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
It would appear that even in the first century some decided that meeting as a Body was not necessary or chose to go off and do their own thing. John said that “they went out from us because they were not of us” meaning they were not saved. That is true of some today. Tares will come and go usually after they tear up the Church or at least try. I had a lady at one church say that she wondered if she could be the one to destroy the church. WOW!!!
Others may have had authority issues or wanted to be the authority. Others may have thought they had a new and better way to do things. Solomon was right on when he said that there was nothing new under the sun. Man’s problems in every generation are the same old problems labeled with other names.
The believers were told to hold fast to their profession of faith without wavering. Many who are no longer in church are dealing with wavering faith. When their faith was strong they could not wait for the church doors to be open and they wanted to be with fellow believers every chance they could because the bond was strong.
When a sin or a tragedy came into their life they started missing here and there until they stopped altogether or became one of the SMOs (Sunday Morning Only) or worse the C&E Christians (Christmas and Easter). Their faith wavered and their attendance dropped.
Sometimes it is because it has become all about themselves when the Word says we should consider others. The Greek for consider literally means to observe them fully. Keep an eye on others so they do not fall away. When we are all about what we can get out of church looking only for our blessings we are in peril ourselves of falling away or becoming the sit, soak and soured saints who do not want to bless others.
The Church becomes theirs and DO NOT sit in their seat! What they want is what they get or they move on to where they can get it. They might for awhile, but because they are the problem they will find another reason to move on from that church. The average church member lasts about two years these days.
We are to provoke or incite others to love and to do good works. We will see in a bit that it is not just the job of the pastor and staff to do that.
This is why we are not to forsake assembling. The Greek for assemble literally means the whole collection. Every one that is a believer in Christ is to come together in one Body. Every born-again Christian in a town is part of Christ’s collection of called out ekklesia or church!
We are to stay together so we can be incited to hold strong our profession and provoke one another to good works. We are to exhort/plead this more and more as we see the return of Christ getting closer.
First century folks met every day to do this. They worked twelve hour days from sunup to sundown in harsh conditions. At least once Paul spoke all night and they stayed. Then they went to work!!!! Oh, that we had such zeal!!
That provoking and exhorting must have worked. They turned the world upside down winning souls and were able to endure persecution unto death. We will miss church if the there is a mist in the air and a 10% chance of showers.
There has been more excitement recently about the return of Christ then since I was in college in the 1980s. There is much talk about it today and yet more and more churches are cutting back to one morning service on Sunday. Wednesday night might be for choir practice, Over eater's Anonymous or Yoga classes, but no prayer or bible study.
A Place To Be Trained to Work
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Everybody loves the staff! They do all the work as they were called to do! Ah, no! Personally, I see a fourfold ministry not five based on the sentence structure and because the Greek word kai can be translated as and or even. Thus since teachers do not have the word some in front as in the other ministries I believe it would be better translated pastors-teachers or pastors even teachers which would make this consistent with 1 Timothy 3 where a pastor must be apt to teach as well as in 1 Timothy 5:17 where those elders who labor in the word and doctrine are definitely to be given double honor. These indeed would be pastors who teach.
What is the real job of these folks? They are given for the perfecting or maturing of the saints, you and I, for the work of the ministry. We are to do the work of the ministry. They are to train us how to do it and by that are building up or edifying the Body.
So many men are quitting the ministry because the congregation thinks the pastor should be the one man band or the head of a small band of staff while they sit on the pew and view the show often with a highly critical eye.
If your pastor’s sermons are not helping you or not up to the standard you expect maybe it is because you have him doing things that deacons or you should be doing. He is called to be a pastor, not a CEO, CFO, CIO or any other business type acronym.
Act 6:3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
Deacons or trustees or whatever they may be called exist so that the spiritual leaders could be immersed in prayer so they can be empowered to the ministry of the Word which while not stated here would also including studying. If you have him jumping through hoops to do the work of seven deacons then you can bet his preaching and prayer will suffer. That will ultimately affect the health of him and the Body.
Get into a class. Find articles online or whatever it takes to find your spiritual gift and then use it in a local Body or you will be miserable and weak. The Body will also be weaker if you do not get involved in the work of the ministry. You have a job to do no matter what your age or even health. Is there any part of your body that you want it to retire and not do what it was created to do? Neither did God create the cells of His Body to quit until they die and are replaced by new cells.
A Place To Grow Into Maturity
Ephesians 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Maturity is desperately needed today. People run willy-nilly around the countryside like the folks at Mars Hill seeking to hear some new thing or to find an answer differently than what God told them because they do not like it and want a second opinion. Look hard and long enough and you will find a man who will tell you what you want to hear but God will send leanness in your soul like He did when the Israelites complained about meat in the desert.
We are to come into the unity of the faith. We have one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one doctrine for all issues. There are no gray areas to God for He is light and in Him there is no shadow or turning. Many times if it is something we do not want to do we explain it away as a gray area and because we have faith it is OK then it is OK. Ah, not really.
Some think God has different rules for different groups of His kids. If I had told my daughter to be chaste, don’t drink or smoke while buying my son a fifth of whiskey, a box of cigars then dropped him off on Harry Hines in Dallas you would call me a horrible father! You would be right, but many think God does such things.
Romans 14 and 15 actually says that the brother who eats meat and does not observe special days is the stronger brother and the one who fusses at that is the weaker. However, the stronger is called to give up his liberty to keep his weaker brother from falling so eat your ham sandwich at home and bring beef to the church supper if someone has an issue with ham. It is not teaching gray areas. It is teaching maturity and how to handle freedom making you a perfect or complete man or woman.
We need to stop falling for some of the hoo-ha that is out in the world, but even more so the hoo-ha that has come in or is trying to come into the church. A very shallow look at the Word can create all sorts of things to deceive the young Christian and the older ones as well if they are not grounded in the Word.
Just like there is a new church every six months to a year there are winds of doctrine, revelations and prophecies that enrapture some and get some dry bones excited. However, when they are exposed to sound doctrine the folly is clearly seen.
People will listen to almost anyone that seems strong or winsome taking in anything they say as truth without being a Berean checking the Word to see if these things are so.
Many are like the deacon who said that if the pastor says the white wall is black he would believe him. I asked him what flavor Kool-aid would he like with his cyanide. Yes, the man led him to Christ, but loyalty is to Christ and truth not the man when he errs. People stay in cults and apostate groups because of misplaced loyalty. False prophets lie in wait like wolves to prey upon people with false claims, miracles and double talk.
That is why we are to speak the truth in love to people, but we have to be grounded in the Word to do that. Bouncing from church to church, doctrine to doctrine, new thing to new thing will not ground you. Indeed, in the end, it will confuse and tire you causing you to fall away from the Body and even Christ.
A Place for Unified Strength and Growth
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
In unity, there is strength and while that is a secular saying it is also a biblical truth.
Ecclesiastes 4:9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Satan has used divide and conquer for centuries. When he thought he had it made with an apostate church God moved and led people out of the unclean thing. Yet, even with that splinter groups abounded and Satan used that division to destroy some groups, but God spared many.
Today, we have the same thing. Non-denominationalism was going to break down walls and unite us. Yet, we now have more one church and two church denominations than we had with regular denominations. The wall was broken down alright and the enemy used it to divide, confuse and delude.
We made church a business with our own brands, which sounds much like what a church is in a denomination. It was a brand of hundreds of thousands of believers of like faith united to serve. We are of the Assembly of God brand. Why that was considered so bad is a mystery. The motive may have been good, but it backfired. Instead of uniting it divided.
Speaking the truth in love is designed to make us grow up in Him, the head. He is a complete head and should have a complete Body or a complete collection in one place like your body unless you have missing parts that you wish you still had.
Many churches lack the gifts they need as a Body. How is that possible since verse 16 shows how the Body is interconnected with each piece dependent upon the Head and each other. Indeed, made for a perfect fit and compacted together just like our body.
Have you ever wondered in awe how so much stuff can fit so well in the body? In a relatively small space we have two lungs, a heart, a liver, a pancreas, a stomach, large and small intestines and two kidneys and some other cool things. All of that and they are not cramped. When healthy, they all work in harmony and maintain our life.
Can you see how that affects the Church? Too many eyes decided they were not of the Body so they went somewhere else. Two many hearts moved on and so forth. They do not function well outside of the Body by themselves. Twenty eyes may see but without the rest of the Body they cannot do anything with what they see.
People got wrapped up in personalities; their own and some leader. I am of this church. I am of that church. Paul asked if Christ was divided and the obvious answer is no. So it stands to reason that one head with numerous body parts scattered about is a real problem.
Some churches sent away the parts of the Body they needed to some far off college where they meet someone from far off somewhere else and those body parts moved off to some other place where they may not be needed near as much as where they came from. Hence, the sending church lacks and the receiving church has 12 fingers or 12 toes or 2 noses.
See, God created a Body for one locale. He has many people in many locales, but He wants one Body per locale, not a shredded one.
So, what good is Church? It is His creation and His command to assemble as one Body for encouragement, training, exhortation and unified growth and ministry to your locale or Jerusalem and then your Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world. God is good all the time and all the time the Body is good for you and the world. Take your part in the Body so that it and you can grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Maranatha!!!
