Reasons to be involved in a Local Church

I have been thinking about how important it is to assimilate into the body of Christ everyone who has heard the voice of Jesus and has responded to His call to forgiveness and service.  I have also tried to understand why it is important, and to discover key reasons  I might use to help others see the need for this kind of life response.

The statements below are not the final statements about why it is important for followers of Jesus to be a part of a local congregation and to serve God from with that context, but it is fairly exhaustive.    My list has seven dimensions to it.  What is your response to asking for reasons as to why the church (the called out, the body of Christ, the living tabernacle) is present to love people and to invite them into the fellowship of fellow sinners who have been saved by grace.  What does your list look like?  Here is mine!

Reasons to be involved in a local church:

1.        ENCOURAGEMENT...and who of us doesn’t need our own hearts encouraged?

2.        SUPPORT...and who of us doesn’t need that special group of support people who love us and accept us as we are?

3.        FELLOWSHIP...and who of us doesn’t need a community of people who share our goals and dreams?

4.       PERSONAL SPIRITUAL GROWTH … and who of us would say we have arrived spiritually? So here is an opportunity to grow in Christ and to seek to become all that He would have us be.  It is a step taken in response to grace that has been lavished upon us (Eph. 1:8)

5.       ACCOUNTABILITY...and who of us doesn’t need someone with whom to share our spiritual journey, someone who will hold us accountable to our confessions, pray for us and believe in us, even as we are doing the same for them?

6.       OUTREACH...and who of us has a friend, a neighbor or a loved one who needs Christ?  We are sharers of Good News. 

7.        LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT...and who of us is Jesus calling into places of leadership where our lives can influence other people?  ALL OF US.  So here is an opportunity to develop our faith and go deeper into the things of God, seeking HIS MIND on the matters pertaining to our lives and future, and giving ourselves to be better equipped to do His will.

Scripture Foundation:

“There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts. 4:121).

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).

“We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God” (I Cor. 2:12).

“Let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (I John 3:18).

“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them [“every spirit that does not confess Jesus”]; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (I John

4:2-4).           

“… you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.  ⁷But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;  ⁸for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (I John 4:6-8).

⁴"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. ⁵"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:4-5).