Do I Really Need the Church, Part IV

I've been sharing some reasons why we need to be actively involved in a local church.

I started out sharing some reasons that Walter Woodbury wrote in a booklet called Why Be A Christian, Why The Church?  Yesterday I shared some reasons from Rick Warren in his book titled Purpose Driven Life.  Here are a few more from Rick Warren...

• The Body of Christ needs you.  God has a unique role for you to play in his family.  Your local church is the place God designed for you to discover, develop and use your gifts.  Jesus has not promised to build your ministry; he has promised to build His church.

• You will share in Christ’s mission in the world.  When Jesus walked the earth, God worked through the physical body of Christ; today he uses his spiritual body.  The church is God’s instrument on earth.  As members of Christ’s body, we are his hands, his feet, his eyes, and his heart.  He works through us in the world.

• A church family will help keep you from backsliding.  None of us are immune to temptation.  Given the right situation, you and I are capable of any sin.  A church family provides us with the accountability to keep us on track, to be strong while fighting the temptations that come our way, and to work through our sin when we fail.  Satan loves detached believers, unplugged from the life of the Body, isolated from God’s family, and unaccountable to spiritual leaders, because he knows they are defenseless and powerless against his attacks. 

In another of his books, The Purpose Driven Church, Warren points out that God really made us to be a part of the life of a local church.  We are created with five basic needs:  a purpose to live, people to live with, principles to live by, a profession to live out, and power to live on.  The church is the only place on earth where you can meet all five of these needs in one place. 

Are you still sitting on the fence?  Or are you beginning to see that the church is necessary.  And that you need the church if you are going to mature as a believer.  If you don't currently belong to a church, I hope you can make the commitment to begin visiting some churches this week.  Find one you can grow in.  And become active in all that it offers.