A Place to Belong
Purpose Driven Life #17
Cornwall/Montreal
December 6, 2003
Are you a church attender or a church member? Does it matter which you are, or which you choose to be? Maybe you’re not sure, right now, what you want to be and are exploring to decide what you want to be.
It does matter and I want to encourage you to become an active church member. There’s a difference between an attender and a member. Attenders are spectators from the sidelines; members get involved in the ministry of the church. Attenders are consumers; members are contributors. Attenders want the benefits of a church without sharing the responsibility. They are like couples who want to live together without committing to marriage.
The early NT church sets the pattern for us of what we need to be and ought to be.
Acts.2.42- they were committed to each other, to the mission of the church, to the common meal, and to the praying which allows for the work of the church to go forward. God expects you, and me, to commit to the same things today. He hasn’t changed. He hasn’t ‘updated’ his expectations. God is so wonderfully fair and has maintained, from the beginning, the ideals for the church- for his church.
The Christian life is more than just commitment to Christ- that’s the necessary beginning point. But, it includes a commitment to other Christians, too. The Christians in Macedonia understood this:
2 Cor.8.5. Jumping into the life of a local church is the natural next step once you’ve become a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ. You become a Christian by committing yourself to Christ, but you become a church member by committing yourself to a specific group of believers. The first decision brings salvation; the second brings fellowship.
You and I are called to belong, not just to believe. Even in Eden, God said that is was not good for people to be alone. We are created for community, but have trouble with the idea because of human hurts we have experienced. However, those hurts must not stand in the way of our doing what God declares we need to be doing. However, the Bible knows nothing of solitary saints or Christians living isolated from other believers and deprived of fellowship. God never intended for our faith to be a ‘private’ faith. In God’s family, you are connected to every other believer, and we will belong to each other for eternity!
Ro.12.5
C.S. Lewis wrote that the word ‘membership’ is of Christian origin, but the world has emptied it of its original meaning. We know that Costco offers special privileges to its members. Members of various organizations get special benefits. American Express members get Air Miles on our purchases, if we have that card. It’s like this, so the idea of membership has been cheapened.
However, to Paul, being a ‘member’ of the church meant being a vital organ of a living body, an indispensable, interconnected part of the body of Christ.
Ro.12.4-5
1 Cor.6.15
1 Cor.12.12-27- take time with these verses to emphasize what they say. In order for the organs to fulfill their purpose, they must be connected to your body. The same is true for you as part of Christ’s Body. You were created for a specific role, but you will miss this second purpose of your life if you’re not attached to a living, local church. You discover your role in life through your relationships with others. Note, specially, what Paul declares in those verses in Romans 12 that we have just read.
If an organ is somehow severed from the body, even though we are used to the idea of physicians being able to reconnect it, we know that, without that reconnection, and, sometimes even with it, it will shrivel and die. It cannot exist on its own, and neither can you. Disconnected and cut off form the lifeblood of a local body, your spiritual life will wither and eventually cease to exist. That is why the first symptom of spiritual decline is usually inconsistent attendance at worship services and other gatherings of believers. Whenever we become careless about fellowship, everything else begins to slide, too.
I spoke this week about the restrictions of leadership or of increasing spiritual maturity with the Pastoral Teams in both congregations. If you think of leadership responsibilities or opportunities, in terms of a pyramid, the options and potential diminishes as we go up the pyramid. I have fewer options than you do, for instance, and those of you longer-term members have fewer options than brand new members do. More is expected of you- by God, me, and others. You need to be more involved- to attend more- to be more regular in giving- to bemore supportive, and the like.
The church is God’s agenda for the world.
Matt.16.18. The church is indestructible and will exist for eternity. It will outlive this universe, and so will your role in it. The person who says, “I don’t need the church,” is either ignorant or arrogant! The church is so significant that Jesus died on the cross for it.
Eph.5.25! This is very important to realize. You cannot say you love Jesus while not loving his wife. You don’t treat friends or acquaintances that way and you certainly cannot treat Jesus that way.
1 Pet.2.17- God tells us to love your spiritual family. Sadly, many Christians use the church but don’t love it.
We are used to the idea of isolationism in our world and believe we can bring this idea into the church. No! We cannot.
John 3.16- see what God did for us.
1 John 3.16- see what you are to do, because of what Jesus did for you. Only in regular contact with ordinary, imperfect believers can we learn real fellowship and experience the NT truth of being connected and dependent on each other.
So, what are you supposed to do? God has a unique role for you to play in his family. This is called your “ministry” and God has gifted you for this assignment.
1 Cor. 12.7.
Your local fellowship- here, for you and me- is the place God designed for you to discover, develop, and use your gifts. You may also have a wider ministry, but that is IN ADDITION to your service in a local body. Jesus has not promised to build your ministry; he has promised to build his church, and local congregations are ‘understood’ in the NT record about the church. Do not downplay the importance of the church, but recognize that all serving is to begin here. All won’t occur here, but we need to provide lots of opportunities to go out from here. When we ‘get it’ as far as Jesus and membership in the family of God, we are given energy and this energy needs to be directed, first, in the efforts of the church. We need to be listening to God to hear what opportunities for service he is giving us.
For instance, the Old Brewery Mission is an opportunity which some are wanting to grab hold of. I can only commend, too, Tony who has taken on the coordination of this- we needed someone to be moved to do this, so we can have a more consistent effort. This is opening a service opportunity more consistently that was not there until about 6 weeks ago. This is the kind of thing that will develop and we can look to increasing activity and serving from here. It’s not all to be done here and toward here, but will be done, with energy FROM here.
Conclusion
Don’t let anyone tell you that the church is not important and that it does not matter whether you are involved in the church or not. The church is God’s idea- it’s a heavenly idea and one of the few things we know is such an idea. When we participate and belong, here, we know we’re where we’re supposed to be. Anywhere else, we can only hope. This is the centre from which activity toward the outside is to be happening, to help others here. We’re looking to understand what we’re supposed to be doing. We’re making a beginning- Empowering Couples, in Montreal- but it’s only a beginning. But we have to start somewhere. We have to work from the strengths that God has given us and relationship building is one of those, as well as practical living. I believe we combined those in what we did and though it’s not standing in front of people and declaring Christ, I believe that I did declare Christ through what I covered, in encouraging living practically in relationship, like Christ wants. We’ll find other ways to reach out and we’ll find them and implement them quicker and better if and when we’re all devoted here. We need to belong- to plant our feet and belong and live here, first and foremost. From the energy this will bring, great things will happen from our congregation toward our city and area.
