Church...What is it good for?

There is serious competition for your weekend attention these days causing many former church attenders to re-evaluate the importance of going to church every weekend. Is it really necessary to attend church every Sunday? What amount of attendance is really required or needed?

First, it is vital that we understand that the “Church” is not a building, or a location. The Bible says the real “Church” is made up of “living stones”.

…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (I Peter 2:5 NIV)

The Church is “God’s family”. It is made up of all those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus asking his forgiveness and following His commands. The “Church” comes together to worship God on a weekly basis as scripture commands. Setting aside one day a week to focus the family on God is Biblical and extremely valuable to our individual lives.

The local church can be a powerful agent for community transformation. Helping create a safer community, making strong marriages, reducing crime rates, lowering at risk children stats. This is why it is important for local churches to own property, buildings and other resources that can help them affect their community for Jesus Christ. A place, where the community can gather to learn about Jesus, to enjoy the benefits of fellowship, to heal broken families and to serve the needs of the community.

The church location is supported in large part by the freewill gifts of the people who call it their home church location. The better the attendance and participation in serving, giving and growing in Christ the healthier the overall church family and assets will remain. If the church loses its support in a community it may be forced to close. So attendance and participation is important for each local church.

When it comes to faithful attendance to church the primary motivation must be our personal relationship with Jesus Christ and our identification with a local body of members who share our faith in Christ. In the face of a culture that may have lost the value of Christian community we who know it must show it!

The value of belonging to a local congregation who loves and serves Jesus can be measured in so many ways. Does that mean you can never miss a Sunday? No. People miss church for the same reasons they miss work: sickness or vacation days. When our family is on vacation we choose to go to church on Sundays because we really love it. We also enjoy meeting other members of the family of God and discovering how they are organizing their services to reach their community.

We have attended churches near Disneyland in California, Florida, Hawaii, Palm Springs, Little Rock, Tucson, Sedona, Flagstaff, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio to name a few. The best thing that ever happened to me was to make Jesus Lord and leader of  my life and the second best thing was to live out my walk with Jesus in the family of God, our local congregations.

If you do not have a home Church and you are in the Austin/Round Rock area, let me invite you to try out the Grace Place. www.gpaustin.com