The joy of being home in the local church
While I was on Sabbatical recently, I took the opportunity to visit a range of churches in my city. I chose churches that I had not visited before and where I had some kind of connection. Some of them were very good and taught from the Bible, welcomed me warmly, and told me the gospel of Jesus. Others felt a little colder. Some went in-depth into the Bible passage but had little application, and some were mainly application without a lot of Bible. All churches have strengths and weaknesses.
The day I returned to my home church was quite a different experience. Instead of having to introduce myself to everyone and have shallow, first-meeting kind of conversations, I could settle into speaking to people I have history with. All around the room were people I have known for years. It felt different to all of the other churches I visited, even the really good ones; it felt like home.
Let me be honest. While I love my church, we are not the best at everything. We are sinners trying our best. Our location in the middle of the city is inconvenient. We value preaching in a certain way, but that doesn’t mean other styles of preaching are not also faithful and helpful. While I love and value our music, some find it less enthusiastic than they might find in a Pentecostal church. But it is my church, the church where I belong with the people I know well as brothers and sisters.
Being part of your own local church family is wildly different from hopping from church to church. Many Christians visit a range of different churches but don’t settle in one. Others travel to different church sites in the virtual world to experience different preaching and worship. While the actual content you might absorb in church hopping or from different online preachers might be great, it is no substitute for being part of a local church where people know you and you know other people.
It is like the difference between going on holidays and coming home. I love being on holidays. There is excitement in seeing places you have never seen before. But however good your experiences on holidays might be, you can never fully relax in a hotel room or in someone else’s house. Being in your own house means you know where everything is. Home is special.
Here are three reasons why being committed to a local church family is good for your faith:
- Your relationships with others at church keep you accountable. Others will know things about you and will care for you. There will be people who pray for you and who look out for you.
- You have a good opportunity to encourage others and use your gifts to build them up. The stronger your relationships with others, the more you can do this. Being part of one local church also means you see that community as where you serve, rather than the place you go to be served by others.
- You will have a pastor and other church leaders who know you. As good as online preachers might be, they are not preaching with you and your community in mind. They are often unaware of the issues facing your church in your location. They are not responding to the death of one member or the marriage of two others.
Ideally, Christians should settle into a local church to serve others for an extended period of time. It takes time to build relationships with people. Leaving a church family can be done if there are big reasons to do so, or in order to grow the kingdom of God through church planting.
The local church should feel like home to you. Thank God for your church. And if you’re not currently part of one, find a church that holds to the Bible being God’s word and Jesus being our Lord and Saviour.