I Can Stream Church: Do I Have To Go?

(excerpt by Art Lindsley)

Have you ever thought about why you go to church? It’s not just for the coffee and donuts, though some churches offer really good coffee these days!

The Christian calling involves a call to grow in our walk with Christ and that primary call is lived out in four key secondary callings—the family, church, vocation and community. Today, I’d like to discuss our calling to the church.

God’s church serves many purposes, including worship, teaching, service and care. At its heart, the church is a life-source of community and truth for believers, where we share life and pursue a relationship with God together. The primary role of the church is to build up believers for the work of ministry, which is all that we do, including making disciples of all nations.

The church is also a marketplace of exchange for our God-given gifts. Basil, an early church father, wrote that “when we live our lives in isolation, what we have is unavailable and what we lack is unprocurable.”

In other words, when we are not part of a community, we deprive each other of our gifts. Through the church, we serve and encourage fellow believers. Hebrews 10:24 calls us to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. To do that we must be in a community—particularly a well-functioning church.

The following points outline the importance of our calling to church.

* The church is the body of Christ.

Jesus repeatedly uses the metaphor of a body with many parts to explain the church (Eph. 4; I Cor. 12:12; Rom. 12:4–5). Jesus Christ reigns as the head and the church functions as the body. As believers in Jesus, we are members of the body, each with unique gifts and functions.

When we refer to the church, we are talking about both the visible church building where believers go to worship on Sundays and the invisible, universal community of believers in Jesus Christ united in faith even if they are not part of the same congregation. All believers are part of the universal church, or body, of Christ and should also invest in a local congregation.

The visible church is a place where we can both be filled and serve others. The church should be a place of biblical teaching that feeds both the mind and the soul (Acts 2:42) and a place to worship in spirit and in truth. 

The church is also a place for fellowship and sharing in our common faith, both on Sundays and during the week. Finally, the church is a central place to serve people in need in the congregation, in the community at large, in the city, state, nation and world through our financial resources and tangible action.

It’s important to remember that even in imperfect churches, we benefit in many ways. All churches are imperfect because they are made up of sinners. However, many churches, although imperfect, are places where we can truly grow.

* We have gifts that are powered by the Holy Spirit.

We all have spiritual gifts that we can contribute to each other. (Eph. 4:11–12, Rom. 12:3–8, I Cor. 12:7–11 and 27–31, and I Peter 4:10–11 list a variety of gifts.)

In the 1 Peter passage, note that every person has a gift or gifts. No believer lacks a gift. We are called to use these gifts (God’s gifts) to serve one another—inside and outside the church—as good stewards and to glorify God.

The church is not just for our personal well-being. Your gifts, powered by the Holy Spirit, can be used to God’s glory in any setting.

So, in our spiritual journey and pursuit of Christ, membership and participation in the church is not just a suggestion. Scripture is clear that the community and role of the church are vital to our spiritual growth.