Why Church? To Grow



Why church?  More precisely, why should you belong to a church?  That's a good question in a time in which many people are finding few reasons to do so!

One of the most important reasons why you should belong to a church is that you grow best as a Christ follower when you do!  

Before we explore why that is, we need to distinguish between attending a church and belonging to one.  When you just attend a church, you take on the role of spectator.  You observe and maybe even take part in worship.  But you're not engaged with the church.

When you belong to a church, you enter into covenant with a group of Christ followers.  You become engaged with them in fulfilling your mission to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

The accumulated wisdom of church history is that we grow in our following of the Lord Jesus by practicing spiritual disciplines.  Among the most important of them is belonging to a church.

Why?  One of the most important reasons is that when you belong to a church, you grow by the ministry of others through their spiritual gifts and by your expression of your own spiritual gifts.  

In 1 Corinthians 12:1ff the apostle Paul described the church as the body of Christ in which each person had at least one endowment of the Holy Spirit. They included faith, prophecy, wisdom, and so forth.  These gifts are for the building up the individual parts of the body and of the whole!

When you belong to a local church, you benefit from the gifts of other members and they benefit from yours.  

For all its faults and messiness, the local church is still the best context in which you can grow to be like Christ!

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