Church so Important?

The most important thing about church is community, sharing life with other believers.  

Life can get tough with work, spouse, kids, and everyone is willing to give advise about things, the problem is sometimes the advise from a worldly perspective is often different than the advise from a biblical one.  You will find the world often has a 'look out for yourself' mentality, while a Christian view will usually be, or should be selfless, sometimes taking the harder path to please God.

If the only people around you are either non-Christian or even immature in their  Christian faith, not really knowing what the Bible says about things, then you could end up going down the wrong path not knowing it.  

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

“For where two or three gather in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)

Is anyone among you sick?  Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.  If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. (James 5:14-15)

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5)

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.  And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47)

These are just a handful of scriptures showing that we were never meant to go at this alone. We are called to be together, to be there for one another.  When our Christ sees a group together in His name, He is there among them, to hear your prayers, cries, and your worship.  We all have strengths and weaknesses, where you are weak one of your brothers or sisters in Christ will be strong, where they may be weak, there you are with your strengths.  Those set in seats in the church as elders, pastors, priests, and deacons are there for you to guide you, to pray for you and to lead you.  

The Apostles and disciples met daily, to worship and pray together, they did not go alone, they were facing great discrimination and the strength of each other and of God was needed daily.  The same goes with us, meeting once a week to pray, worship, and read scripture was never meant to be weekly, but daily.  We congregate, as corporate worship goes, weekly. But it's very good for your spiritual walk and growth to meet in smaller groups throughout the week, even daily with another one or two people would be idea.  But our communion with God, private prayer and devotion to His word is key to living a spiritual life with Him. He says to be in continual prayer, to be thinking of Him all throughout the day.  

The Apostles, disciples, and many today have daily practices to help them do this: 

• A time to pray, or times to stop and pray set aside
• Days to fast from food, or hours to devote that time to God in prayer
• Daily reading of the Bible, this can be a chapter a day, or a book in the Bible
• Study theology
• Christian radio to listen to in the car or while working out

The list goes on, see there is no law of what you have to do or what will get you close to God. These practices are because you love God and want to know Him, to be in communion with Him.  As much as congregating with other believers is important, so is the knowledge of what the Church is.  It isn't just a building, it is YOU!  God redeemed you through Christ for a purpose, to fulfill that purpose we need to hear Him, to hear Him we need to be close to Him, to be close to Him we need to spend time with Him.  

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? (1 Corinthians 3:16)

The main thing in finding a church to attend is to first  make sure they are a Bible believing church.  Most will claim to be but a good way to make sure is to see how they align with the early church fathers and Apostles.  Beliefs that are important are:

• Trinity - That God is One God in three persons.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  If you go to the 'God' tab on this website it will explain this in more detail.
• Christ came and lived, died, then resurrected.  Through Him we have seen God as He has dwelt among us.
• The Holy Spirit is our teacher and guide that dwells in us from the time we place our faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior.
• That the church is visible, a building, and invisible, meaning the true church is all the believers making up the one true church, the body of Christ.
• Through the grace of God we have been able to place our faith in Him, not by works but by faith that leads to good works.
• Usually a type of structure within the church that it is lead by a group, often called elders and pastors leading the congregation.  That there is accountability within the leadership.
• Look at their mission statement, are they an outreaching church, evangelistic ministries, helping the community?
• Children and group ministries around the core Biblical beliefs.

There are many different denominations out there and it can be tough to know which one is right.  Many believe their church denomination is the correct one.  I believe there are many. The Eastern Orthodox church seems to be one that hasn't broken from the ancient church, but over about 1000 years from the Apostles it took up some beliefs in Mother Mary and the saints that I find hard to cope with, as well as their icon usage.  The Catholic church seemed to break away from the Orthodox beliefs with things like Papal authority, purgatory, the immaculate conception of Mary, as well as icons that just don't fit scripture.  Both also believe the salvation process is Faith plus works, which stem from their theology of original sin and infant baptism.  Their theology is different from each other but the result of it is similar, which is, washed as an infant and your salvation is established over time with confirmation, sacraments, and a good life.  Faith plus works, they both also hold Tradition and Scripture as infallible, with the same authority.  That gets tough to do the more you learn about Church History as far as Tradition goes vss. Scripture that has stood the test of time and has defeated adversaries that have come against it with it's historical and prophetic truths.  The Eastern Orthodox theology seems to be more enlightened, with more freedom and confidence in their salvation then what I have learned about Catholicism.  

Then you have 1000's of other denominations from the reformation in the 1500's.  The reformed theology focuses on Faith Alone.  That saving faith leads to the experience of baptism, sacraments, and a good life, but you are justified for eternity the moment you put your faith in Christ.  Some Protestant religions also do infant baptism, but their theology is different when it comes to original sin (I will do a section on different religions soon).  They also hold to Scripture alone, which claims that Scripture has the ultimate authority, and any teachings, revelations, or traditions fall under it's authority, not equal to it.  

So it can be overwhelming.  Be sure you stick to the list above on what beliefs are core when it comes to the Christian faith, and feel free to send me a message and I can give you some insights on a church you may be looking at to visit and possibly becoming a part of.  The important thing is to find a good one and dive in!

There are some churches that claim they are the only church that will be saved in the last days, STAY away from these!

Any churches that are 'secretive' and you only get the full scope of what they believe as you get deeper in them, stay away!  This type of structure has been around since the beginning, more of a Gnostic type of belief system.  

I personally would stay away from:

• Scientology
• Mormon / Church of Latter Day Saints
• Jehovah Witness

These tend to hold to the claim that only they will inherit the Kingdom, as well as believe that Christ was a created being and not God in the flesh.  In my experience many of them you speak to on the congregational level will know very little about their religion's core beliefs, some being 'secrets' not yet revealed.  More information about these religions will be given in the "Denominations" section of this website.  

Some other things to look out for are those that claim a true faith will give you certain gifts, like speaking in tongues or the ability to play with venomous snakes without getting bit, keep looking!

Anything that just seems odd you may want to look into a bit further.  Like I said before, any information about a certain group or denomination/religion feel free to message me and I will be more than happy to give you my insights on them, their facts and beliefs. 

Yes they are!  Always remember we are all a work in progress.  We serve a Great God, a Perfect Savior that we will forever be becoming more and more like, without ever achieving it.  That isn't to be discouraging but it is the truth.  

The Christian life is all about God molding us to be in His likeness.  We will fail, sometimes in big public ways.  Those failures might keep us from serving Him in certain ways but never eliminating our ability to serve.  What I mean is if you are a pastor, priest, or leader that has had an affair, you probably shouldn't be in that position again, but God forgives and so should we, for them and ourselves.  But even if that's the case, unless you are gone from this life then God still has a purpose for you.  Don't let someone else's struggles keep you from experiencing God the way he intended you to, the way He built you to.

We will all face failures, we won't be as nice as we should be, neither will they.  Know we are all sinners saved by grace.  We see tons of failure in scripture like Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Peter, Paul, and so many more.  They didn't quit or give up, they continued to seek God, His forgiveness and their humility, those are the ones God uses the most.  So remember no one is perfect, only Christ, and eventually we will be with Him and shed this sinful flesh.  Until then, be humble, have forgiveness, and serve God, others, and His Church all the days of your life.