After lifting up Christ's love for His bride, the Church, here is the list I gave my church for how to enhance their commitment to the church:
1. If you haven’t already, join a strong local Church.
2. Organize your schedule around the Church.
-The church is the only institution that the Lord promised to build (Matt. 16:18)
3. Make your church leaders’ jobs a joy.
-Heb. 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
4. Come (attend the scheduled events of the church – Heb. 10:25)
5. Find a place to serve (creates ownership – 1 Cor. 12:7).
“Ministering in the church constitutes the highest privilege. Nothing could be more honorable or have greater eternal significance than serving our Christ in his church. This privilege is also the most serious responsibility a person can undertake.” –John MacArthur
6. Give (start with a tithe)
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”
7. Connect with people in the church (“One Another” commands).
8. Pray daily for the members and ministry of this church.
9. Never insult or complain about your church (God’s bride).
This does not mean that we cannot evaluate our faithfulness (attitude is key).
10. Prepare yourself for Sunday.
6 comments:
Justin,
While I don't think this is bad advice at all ( a year ago I would have agreed with you whole heartedly) I would not want to place too much emphasis on spending time at church. Only because we can develop a natural dependency on others for spiritual guidance and wisdom. I have more than once disregarded what I believed the Lord to be telling me in order to take another person's advice. I think this can be dangerous because we don't want people to replace God in our lives.
Jody, thank you for commenting on my blog.
However, one of my goals in this sermon was precicely to help God's people "develop a natural dependency on others for spiritual guidance and wisdom."
Now, I would agree with you that we should never disregard the clear voice of the Lord simply to take another's advice. People are falliable; God's Word is infalliable.
However, God has designed us to live in community with one another. We were never meant to live in isolation from one another. The lone ranger Christian approach (just me and my Bible) is unhealthy and unbiblical.
God has set His affections on His Church. If we are to love God, we must also love His Church.
I agree with Justin 100%! I know that there have been times when I have taken what other people said over even what my own husband has told me. That was not the fault of the church, but my own. I was given instruction or counsel by my husband and decided on my own to ask for someone else's opinion and took it. That was sin on my part because I stepped out of the umbrella of protection that the Lord put over me in my husband....I think it is good at times to seek others counsel bc people may have more experience or wisdom, or can see things from a different angle, but I think we are the ones that need to exercise caution on what we do with the counsel given to us by others.... I would not use that for a reason to be less involved with your local church. In fact, I believe that any time the doors are open, we should be in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to be around each other as much as possible and stirring each other up to love and good deeds. To hold each other accountable for things, and just enjoying the like mindedness that you cannot recieve out in the world!!!! I hope that encourages you!
Absolutely, I agree that we should develop spiritually with like-minded, mature believers. But I think a lot of people are strong-armed into participating in every function of the church, even if they are not called but just so they can show their face under peer pressure. And even though we are to put others' needs above our own, I think a person's moral character and spiritual maturity is often measured not by their devotion to God but by their devotion to being present at every church function, making it a religion of being seen by others. While I think community support is integral to a healthy spiritual walk, there are often folks who believe it is sufficient in and of itself. A proper balance is necessary. I think this can be better expressed in the picture we have of spiritual retreats hosted by our churches. You arrive at a destination, hoping to spend time alone with God and come together to worship, but you immediately receive a program of the weekend's events, listing your activities by the hour and rarely allowing time to get alone with God during the entire retreat. This is just a small picture of what can happen: a well-intentioned group distracting one another from a retreat's purpose.
I am in the process of seeking a strong church in my community, and my husband has begun a group on Sunday evenings. But I would like to meet with others in a church setting on Sunday mornings as well. But finding a solid church in my community has proven difficult and I believe I will soon settle for the mediocre. It's not that I am looking for flaws- quite the opposite. I've been overlooking flaws in order to abide and rest easy in the environment I find myself in. However, I am confident that the Lord will supply all my needs that the church cannot meet. It is a growing process. And we need to be open to where the Spirit will lead us...
Wow! let me enourage you Jody! My best friend and her husband just moved to England. That has to be the most "spiritually dead" place in the entire world!!! When you do find a church that teaches the word correctly, there are other things that go against God's word in the church like women pastors- or great exposition of the word, but no application. They have been so faithful to our Lord to not attend a church that teaches or does anything that is black and white when it comes to God's word.
They have been in England for more than 6 months without a church to call home. But they have been attending churches and being faithful to pray and finding ways to serve the Lord here and there. They looked over issues that were based on prefrence, but not based on the word of God!
I just talked to her this past week and they have found a church that is VERY small but VERY like minded and VERY biblical.
I encourage you guys to be faithful to pray and be faithful to not compromise His word, and He will be faithful to lead you to a place that worships in spirit and truth.
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all you heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."
Just wanted to add one more thing, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "A proper balance is necessary"
That is so true. There must be a proper balance of private worship and public worship. We cannot have alone time with the Lord when we are around a lot of people. We must make sure that we are spending a proper amount of time with the Lord on our own at home.
But we also learn so much from the pastor and by being sharpend by other believers that we couldnt get on our own. So I think that we need a good balance of both.
This is such a good reminder for me, and my own worship. Am I dependent alone on public worship to get me through the week, or am I only seeking the Lord through private worship and not applying what I learned in public worship?
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