All Churched out?

Well, over Christmas, two families who are friends of mine & live next door in a friendly Close, got together with a neighbour on the other side and had Christmas carols and served hotdogs and punch & stuff to everyone else in the close + other friends (like me). It was SO nice and neighbourly - and representative of how they are with each other, always dropping in & helping look after each other's children spur of the moment and so on. It has really made an impression on me; I feel really glad to know these people. I've thought about this on & off since then - and started writing this blog because I realised - how unsual I perceive that to be.

So these people are really good neighbours to each other; so that's the kind of thing that I've got in the habit of thinking doesn't happen outside Church community any more.

So if that kind of community can happen outside church ... why, then, go to church? I think a lot of people are in it for the community; but if they could get that somewhere else, what is church for?

Some reasons I think people go to church...

Fellowship. But it's a flawed reason because it depends on the people who make up the church; churches are not immune to cliques or closed people who find it hard to reach out/make an effort. And in a small church you may end up having more to do with people who, at first reckoning, don't seem to have much else in common with you.

Also ... it depends on your attitude. Do you expect fellowship without reaching out for it? And some people need to be reached out to, or nurtured in some way, for ages before they can become those who reach out. Some people in the church will always seem to be 'takers'... though ideally, and realistically in many cases, they will become givers as well.

Good teaching - well, you're not going to get this everywhere. I know a church where the Holy Spirit is moving & inspiring/promting encouraging words and prophetic pictures etc. ... but the teaching is very hit & miss; and Christians there are just not getting 'fed' at the moment.


Good singing/worship - On the other hand, I know a big growing church, where the teaching is more consistently good but, standing at the back once I was really struck by how only 1 person was moving to the music; everyone else seemed to be playing musical statues, but all in the same pose ... head up to the OHP system & hands by sides. Also people don't pray out much, let alone get encourging or prophetic words; it seems there's not loads of room for the Spirit to move in services there. This is something pretty common in many churches I think.


To serve/be of use - but this church does great work in the community - it is growing - & it is bringing people into the 'body of Christ'! Not to be scoffed at!

Is the kind of thing I was seeing in that Close of neighbours what you would more likely associate with the early Church? Church has always been a mix of in people's homes & in a bigger meeting place (the Temple ... to hear Paul ... to hear Jesus) - As the author of the Radical Womanhood blogsite says (in the context of talking about a 'Godly Woman'...) "Her focus was not the house itself, but the people living in that house and those outside who were connected to them through the community. This idea continues in the New Testament. In the book of Acts, we see that the home was where the early church gathered"


I know people who's homes are like this. If that's the New Testament ideal ... and if a bigger church gathering doesn't always deliver good teaching, or worship, or whatever ... what is the real reason or need to go to church?

It is because, as followers of Jesus, we ARE the church.


Here are some pointers:
Ephesians 3:10 "so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places"

1 Corinthians 1 v 2 "To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours"

1 Timothy 4 v 13 - 16"... Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers."

1 Corinthians 12:28 - a place where we can use our gifts..."And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues... So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church"

Ephesians 5:27 "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."

Colossians 1:24 (Paul) "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church"

Next time you wonder if there's any point going to church ... Just remember that it's you/us. We are the church.