I love all the local churches, whether small or large, that I have had the opportunity to worship in and serve alongside of. Many of the believers who were part of those churches were not only formative to my own growth in Christ but also displayed, in their own ways, the beauty of the gospel that is shown in and through the local church. My affection for two specific churches is particularly strong because I grew up in one and currently serve in the other. The church I grew up in demonstrated an incredible amount of love towards me as I was converted, answered the call to ministry, and prepared to leave and train for ministry in college. The church I attend now has a deep love for unbelievers and is always ready to care for those that need help. Moreover, they care about the truth of Scripture and the faithful application of it to their everyday lives.
I work at a Christian college where we encourage students to participate in acts of Christian service throughout the week and to be involved in their local churches. Often, their service relates to a local non-profit or parachurch organization. Many are involved in after-school programs, English classes, and similar opportunities. My hope, though, is that students (and non-student alike) would not put these various outlets at odds with one another by affirming some false dichotomy between their everyday practice as believers and their involvement in their local church. All of us can and should demonstrate our Christian faith in our workplaces, in volunteer opportunities, in our families, and many more places so that we are salt and light in the places we inhabit (Matthew 5:13–16), and we should not forsake the assembling of believers (Hebrews 10:25), where we worship and commune with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
To be clear, I have a high view of the Christian’s involvement in culture. Even so, I want to offer a corrective. We as Christians should be in the wider world, seeking to bring about healing and hope for those affected by sin in the ways God has gifted us and the areas in which He has placed us. In a Kuyperian sense, God calls us to participate in the spheres He has ordained. At the same time, Christians should be radically committed to their local churches, caring for and serving those with whom they have covenanted together. We should care deeply about those in the world and the church. For faithful Christians, the church plays a pivotal and necessary role in their lives. For that reason, I want encourage readers to be about the task of cultivating churchmen and churchwomen.
The Importance of the Church
Regardless of your views on how the Church relates to culture, whether you are Kuyperian or two kingdoms or something else, we should all agree that God is doing something unique in and through the universal and local church.[1] Only in the local church do people covenant together as a body of believers to spur one another on toward righteous living; to join together corporately to worship the triune God in spirit and in truth and to hear others do the same through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; to be fed on the Lord’s Day by the preaching of His Word; and to participate in the sacred ordinances of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and feetwashing. By being part of a church, we have the unique opportunity to glorify God together, focus on the Word, be gifted and empowered by the Spirit, covenant together, confess our beliefs together, commit to a singular mission together, and look forward to our ecclesial future together.[2]
Put another way, the church provides and promotes things that are not available anywhere else. Thus, for Christians who seek to be faithful in their practice, they must rightly acknowledge the incredible importance of the church. They must know that the church offers them not only opportunities for ministry but also a community of saints they cannot find anywhere else. Therefore, we want to encourage believers to recognize the importance of the church and for that emphasis to translate into fruitful participation.
Participating in the Church
If the church is important—and clearly the Bible states that it is—then believers must participate in their local church. Faithful participation is more than simple attendance on Sunday morning. It is also involvement in the many facets of church life. Christians should seek to worship together on the Lord’s Day and to take opportunities to fellowship through Bible study groups and small group meetings. The local church member should give to missions and be involved in the evangelistic outreaches the church is seeking to facilitate. That is, I hope readers would have a right understanding of the priority of participating in their local church. To be sure, God has called us to myriad vocations. Yet, it is the local church that garners so much attention in the New Testament. Many of the New Testament letters are written not to individuals but churches. Those written to individuals were eventually read in churches. And, of course, Christ died for the church.
Another reason to make participation a priority in the church is the confidence we can have in our church work. One of the reasons we should be confident in our work in our churches is because of how it corresponds to our eschatological reality. What we participate in now in our churches is, in many ways, a rehearsal for what we will be doing for all of eternity. As we join together in worship of our Lord on Sundays, we are reminded that in the eschaton we will sing with every tribe, nation, and tongue, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. . . . Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (Revelation 7:10, 12, ESV). The worship of the church—alongside other aspects of the church—is a formative exercise in helping us prepare for our eschatological lives. Moreover, we will serve one another, in unity, as the covenant community bought by the blood of Christ.
Cultivation
If the church is important and we want to encourage significant participation in the church, then we must begin cultivating right sensibilities among Christians towards their church. I think one of the best terms we can use is to cultivate “churchmen” or “churchwomen”—people that are known by their high emphasis and participation in their churches. To be sure, this emphasis and participation requires more than points of prescription. Instead, it requires cultivation—the long, tedious work through someone’s Christian formation in helping them care for and love the church in a manner that is consistent and right.
This cultivation certainly begins with recognizing the importance of the church and encouraging more participation, but pastors, deacons, and ministry leaders bear the responsibility to create a culture in which loving the church is seen as a beautiful and wonderful thing. We have to model for our congregants in our speech and behavior that we too think that the church is Christ’s Bride and that she is profoundly beautiful. Let us not neglect what Christ has died for. Moreover, let us cultivate a heart and mind in each other that looks forward to the angelic festal gathering on Mt. Zion in which we will be with the assembly of heaven, made perfect by Christ, and worship Him forevermore (Hebrews 12:21–24).
[1] “Kuyperian” or “Two Kingdoms” relate to different views in understanding how the Church or the individual Christian relates to the broader culture.
[2] Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 61.
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