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Who Needs the Church?
When our country was being founded, Benjamin Franklin said of the
leaders, referring to the danger of revolting against England, “We must
all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
And so it is. There is strength in unity and numbers. Solomon once said
that a cord of one strand was easily broken, but a cord of three strands
was not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
One of the fundamental beliefs of political philosophy is that, in any
national government, the “whole” must look out for the welfare of the
individual parts, and the individual parts must look out for the welfare
of the whole. When this happens, a nation can run smoothly and prosper.
I believe this is accurate. It is simply the concept of biblical love
applied to government. God has created the world so that, if those in
authority commit themselves to the welfare of those under them, and if
those under them commit themselves to the welfare of those in authority,
everyone will get his needs met in a context of unity and harmony. Love
works.
So it is in the church. The Bible makes it clear that those in authority
in the church are to look out for the welfare of those they are
shepherding (1 Peter 5:1–5)
and those in the church are to look out for those in authority (1 Peter
5:6–7).
The principle of reciprocal love in the New Testament guides us in the
church, and helps us see how the individual needs the church and how the
church needs the individual.
Whether it is our need for the church or the church's need for us, we
all need each other. If we try to make it alone we “hang” separately.
But if we “hang together,” we can make it.
Why Do Individuals Need the Church?
Individuals need the church to help them be successful in their personal
lives.
A few weeks ago we outlined the responsibilities of the church to the
individual. The church should help lead the individual in meaningful
worship, provide biblical instruction, encourage fellowship, and equip
us for service. However, those were all functional, measurable things.
There are other, less measurable reasons why the church is important to
us all.
We need the church for a sense of belonging.
We were created by God to feel a need to belong to something important
and greater than ourselves. Certainly there are other things than the
church that are important and greater than ourselves. But the Christian
longs to know that what he does is important to God, and that he is
doing what God wants him to do. That means that he must have some
“connection” with the church. Otherwise it would be easy to get lonely
and discouraged. If he is involved in a meaningful way with the church,
he feels part of a whole. He feels a sense of belonging.
The twentieth century was the century of the individual. Most, if not
all, cultures which we know much about were cultures of “belonging.” A
person was part of a family, a clan, a people group that had a corporate
identity. In the early part of our nation, we identified with being an
American. We were proud to be Americans. We felt a “manifest destiny”
about ourselves—that we were God's instrument to bring progress,
civilization, and freedom to the world. Something has broken down,
however. Even families are not really units any more. They are often
nothing more than a collection of individuals living under the same
roof. Each has his own bedroom, his own television, his own MP3 Player,
often his own car, his own set of friends, and his own schedule.
We all seek to “do our own thing,” seek our own pleasure, fulfill our
own desires, but we do so at the expense of relationships with others.
The more self-determination we gain, the more alienated and lonely we
feel, because we throw away relationships for the sake of the right to
do what we want to do.
In his book, Who Needs God?, Harold Kushner has written,
We might think of it this way: if you are running a marathon just to see
if you can do it, if you can will your body to run twenty-six miles, you
will enjoy the experience. Your legs will ache and your feet will be
blistered, but you will have the sense of taking part in an adventure,
and the other runners will be your comrades in that adventure, sharing
an exhilarating experience that most people will never know. But as soon
as it becomes important for you to win that race, it is not fun anymore.
Now it becomes a grim, competitive business, and now the other runners
are your rivals, no longer your comrades. The result: the loneliness of
the long-distance runner.
Whenever we must “win” in order to validate our worth as human beings,
other people become either resources to be used or else obstacles. They
are either commodities or roadblocks.
If we see others as resources or obstacles, we cannot help but be
lonely. If we see ourselves as one part of a network, one branch in a
fruitful vine, loving, looking out for, and helping others, while others
love, look out for, and help us, we find what we cannot get any other
way. Belonging. No healthy human being can be happy unless he has
adequate, meaningful relationships with others. This will happen only if
he lives unselfishly.
That is what the church can assure. Yes, some people are able to get
some sense of belonging through family or friends. However, that sense
of belonging is limited if there is no sense of being linked to God. And
a sense of belonging through family or friends used to be more common
than it is now.
Increasingly, families are failing to function as a harmonious unit and
satisfy that sense of belonging. The church has the potential to supply
it by functioning as a spiritual family. Even faithful Christians find a
strong church to be an indispensable contribution to their spiritual
lives because of our inherent need to feel at one with God and with the
other children of God.
We need to know this so we will be willing to invest our life in this
church.
In a culture that creates alienation, the church can provide belonging.
In a culture that encourages competition, the church can provide
cooperation.
In a culture that fosters individualism, the church can provide a team.
The church can provide the ceremonies that draw us together for mutual
strength and encouragement during the major experiences of life: births,
marriages, funerals. Belonging to a caring community that is linked to
God fills Romans 12:15.
The church is just another activity in an already busy schedule unless,
spiritually, we become a part of the lives of those who attend—unless
they allow us into their lives and we allow them into ours. We must
become less occupied with finding people who will dedicate themselves to
alleviating our loneliness, and more occupied with dedicating ourselves
to alleviating the loneliness of others. When we do, both their
loneliness and ours are erased. Suddenly, if it works we belong.
We need the church for greater safety.
Too often, people see authority as inhibiting, limiting, restricting.
Surely it is, yet not all inhibiting, limiting, and restricting is bad.
The chain restricts the dog from running out into the street and getting
hit by a car. The fence limits the child from doing the same. The speed
limit inhibits the inclination to speed and have an accident.
Many adults often see the church the same way teenagers see their
parents, as out-of-touch old fogies who don't want to sin because they
lack the strength or imagination. They have forgotten what is fun, or
lost the ability to have fun, so they dedicate themselves to trying to
keep others from having fun. I remember clearly many restrictions my
parents put on me as a teenager which I tolerated, not because I thought
they were right, but in spite of the fact that I thought they were
unnecessary. Why did I have to be in by midnight? Why did I have to
drive the speed limit? Why did I have to let them know where I was all
the time?
Many times, even though I kept within the limitations they set for me, I
was able to do things that were wrong and completely get away with it.
That only vindicated my belief that I was really the one who knew how to
run my life, and I smugly tried to figure out how I could do the things
I wanted to anyway and still not rile them up. I felt superior. I got
what I wanted and made them look foolish (I thought) in the process. It
wasn't necessary for them to know that I was superior. I was content in
the assurance for myself.
I was lucky. My (true) foolishness never cost me dearly. For example, I
used to drive too fast. I used to fly down narrow hillside roads at
eighty miles an hour. I was lucky that I never had an accident or never
killed anyone. I easily could have.
Now that I am the parent, I realize that they were wise and I was
foolish. I realize there was safety in their restrictions. I realize
that the smartest thing I could have done was to put myself under the
protection of their limitations.
Teenage years are a kind of insanity, and because a common teenage view
is that anyone over thirty is automatically mentally challenged, not
only including their parents but especially their parents, it is often a
futile undertaking to tell them that their parents know best.
However, older-than-teenager church members ought to be able to see the
analogy. Just as teenagers would find safety if they were to put
themselves under the protection of their parents, so Christians would
find safety if they put themselves under the protection of their church.
If it is a good church and you exercise reasoned submission, there is
much protection under the authority of the church. If the church is a
Bible-believing church with spiritually mature leadership, the church
will not want you to sin sexually, or use your money foolishly, or marry
unwisely, or lose control of emotions, or be dishonest, or a hundred
other sins you could commit. And all this would be for your benefit. It
would protect you from harm.
I don’t know how many times I have listened to people tell me stories of
heartache and tragedy that could have been avoided if people had just
put themselves under the protection of the church.
Why Does the Church Need Individuals?
The church needs individuals to help it be successful in its corporate
life.
The church needs our loyalty and commitment.
Loyalty and commitment are wounded virtues. Today, many people care
little about them, and those who might care have a diminished capacity
for them. The reason? Without the help of culture, many of us have a
diminished capacity to see the full picture of loyalty and commitment,
and a diminished capacity to want them in our lives as badly as we ought
to want them.
For example, my best friend in High School’s mom never drove a car
except an Oldsmobile. This year it was an Oldsmobile Eighty-eight, and
that year it was an Oldsmobile Toronado, but always an Olds. Few of us
identify with that kind of loyalty. Perhaps someone might say that blind
loyalty is not a virtue but a weakness. Maybe. However, a person who has
that capacity for loyalty to a car often has a great capacity for
loyalty to God and other things we ought to be loyal to.
The difference between loyalty and commitment is that “loyalty” sticks
with something, while “commitment” is willing to pay a high price while
sticking.
I was lucky. When I grew up, the small world in which I lived was filled
with people who, merely by living their lives in front of me, taught me
a high level of loyalty and commitment. When I look around at the
culture today, I see spouses bailing out on spouses, parents bailing out
on children, employees bailing out on employers, friends bailing out on
friends. Children growing up in this environment have a stunted concept
of what loyalty and commitment are, and thus a stunted capacity to live
out those virtues.
This is a profound disadvantage, because God calls us to lives of
loyalty and commitment to Him. He wants us to be totally committed to
Him forever.
Romans 12:1–2
1 Corinthians 13:8
If that is true, let me make a link between that fact and the “church.”
1. We are called to total and unending loyalty and commitment to God.
2. The church is important to God. In fact, the central thing God is
doing in the world today is building His church (Matthew 16:18).
There is nothing more important to God right now than the church.
3. Therefore, we cannot claim loyalty to God without offering loyalty to
His church.
How loyal are you to the church? How committed are you to the church? If
everyone treated the church the way you do, what shape would the church
be in?
Do you remember the sixties. Much that was important and valuable to our
society collapsed and died in the sixties. The sexual revolution, the
fall of respect for authority, the rise of selfishness and
individualism. Starting with the first baby-boomers and continuing
today, we are not very loyal or committed to the church. We have a
consumer mentality toward the church. I am concerned about Me. The most
important thing in the world is Me. If I am going to go to church it is
going to be for Me. I want to know what I am going to get out of it. If
the church doesn't meet my expectations, I will go down the road to one
that does, or I will stay home and watch Sunday Morning on TV, drink
coffee, eat toasted bagels, and work the crossword puzzle.
This is wrong. Our attitude ought to be, God deserves my loyalty and
commitment. The church is the most important thing in the world to God.
Therefore, the church deserves my loyalty and commitment. As a result, I
must commit myself to it.
You will not find a perfect local church. But we should all do what we
can to help make the church all that it should be. We should make sure
that if everyone treats our church the way we do, the church will
thrive.
The church needs our resources.
If the church deserves our loyalty and commitment, what do we do?
The answer is that we manifest our heart by “giving.”
John 3:16
Ephesians 5:25
Throughout the Bible, we see that love doesn't take; it gives. If we are
going to love what God loves—if we are going to love the church—we must
give to it. Give ourselves, and give of our resources as a result of
having given ourselves. We all have resources which the church must have
if it is to thrive.
We all have time.
Each of us has twenty-four hours in a day. Certainly we are all busy. I
don't know of many people who aren't busy. So we cannot give the church
our leftover time. We don't have any. We must make the church a
priority, and if we don't currently have enough time for it, we must
reevaluate how we're spending our time and drop something that is of
lesser priority.
How much time? That is between you and the Lord. But your conscience
must be clear about it. It will take some time. Ask Him to direct you.
We all have talents.
Each of us is gifted to do something. Each of us has been gifted by God
with a talent, and that talent is to be used for the benefit of others.
Ephesians 4:16
1 Peter 4:10.
We all have resources.
Each of us has been enabled by God to make money. Some have very little
money, and some have a lot of money, but each of us is to give to the
Lord as He has prospered us.
Matthew 25:29
If we have a little, He will expect a little from us. If we have a lot,
He will expect a lot from us.
How much money? Well in the Bible we see the widow in Luke 12:42-44
giving everything and God being pleased and in the Old Testament we see
the Israelites being required to give 10% and God being pleased. Now I
know you are about to say well we are not under the Old Law. Granted
that’s true but I doubt that anyone baptized in Acts 2 came up out of
the water and said Whoo Hoo! I don’t have to give 10 % any more.
Money is an outside indication of what’s going on, on the inside!
A lack of money for the church is often a reflection of a lack of
loyalty and commitment. To get more resources for ministry, the church
must address the lack of loyalty and commitment to God and His
priorities. When priorities are where they need to be, the resources
which God wants for ministry will often fall into place.
We all can pray.
We are given the privilege of praying to God. In fact, we are commanded
to pray
1 Thessalonians 5:17
If it is true that everything accomplished in the world of a spiritual
nature is done by God then it is inescapable that we ought to pray.
John 15:5
It is fruitless for us to work without praying
Psalm 127:1
If you see someone working his head off without praying, he has mixed-up
theology. He doesn't understand what he is doing. He thinks he can do
the work of God. He cannot. He should first pray.
We all can give goodwill.
Each of us communicates loudly and clearly what we think of something.
We cannot avoid doing so. We communicate not only by what we say and do,
but by what we don't say and don't do. That is why we cannot avoid
communicating what we really think and feel. We need to give the church
our goodwill.
People will know if we do and if we don't. Don't give your time,
talents, resources, and prayer to the church with a bad attitude. Ask
God to change you. Then you won't infect anyone else with your
condition. Then you can serve with the spirit of Christ, being more
concerned with giving than receiving. Then you can jump in and give of
yourself, and you'll be giving yourself to the thing that God thinks is
the most important thing in the world right now, His church.
The church and individual Christians must live in a symbiotic
relationship. They need each other. The individual needs the church for
a sense of belonging, for guidance, direction, and safety. And the
church needs the individual. It needs the loyalty, commitment, physical
resources, and spiritual resources. The church and the individual need
each other, and neither will be healthy without the other.
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