A few days ago I had a conversation with someone about "the church" and they told me that they did not believe in the concept of the church as we know it and that they certainly did not believe in the concept of "pastor." (Don't know what this person does with the scriptural office of Pastor... but we will deal with that another day.) For now, I want to spend just a minute on why I believe in the local church and the roll it plays in our lives. Let me first say, that I know that "the Church" is the Body of Christ, and that we should do all we can to keep from isolating and insulating ourselves from one another, regardless of race or denominational influence.
A problem that I see creeping into the Body of Christ today is that there is not a good foundation in so many people's spiritual lives. I believe that one way that God helps us to build a solid and sure foundation is through the local churches. God sets pastors over us to teach us the Word of God. Everyone needs a pastor. The pastor needs a pastor! A pastor is one over us in the Lord, someone in authority that we can go to for advice. We can go to to pastor to talk, to bounce ideas around and receive their input and direction. We can tell them the thoughts we have that we believe are from God and get their advice. Many dislike that concept, but the Bible tells us that there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors. (Proverbs 11:14)
There is a trend today to run from meeting to meeting to meeting.... from church to church, and never set down roots. You cannot build a foundation this way... at least not a strong one. I believe every believer needs to establish a connection within a local church body and attend regularly to mature properly.
Please understand, I am not talking exclusion here. There is nothing wrong with attending other meetings, but it is my observation that those believers who are always running here and there are usually unstable, and easily knocked for a loop. You see these people on the proverbial spiritual roller-coaster. They may put on a good show for a season, but the reality is that they will never amount to much because they are not willing to set down roots in a church and build a foundation in their spiritual walk. They have no accountability, and where there is a lack of accountability... disaster usually follows.
Is the church perfect? No.... and neither is the pastor.
But we are in this journey together, and God set the standard. One may argue that the church today is not what it was in Biblical times. This is true. But the vast majority of the time I hear this argument, it comes from one who does not like the financial structure of the church. (Again, a topic I will approach in another post soon.) The bottom line for those people is that they are not willing to submit themselves to someone else, even though the Bible is clear here. They don't want to be held accountable... and that says it all.
I'll leave it there for now... but I want to say... I believe in the local church, and not just because I am a pastor. Before I pastored I was a part of the local church and supported it. During the time I took off from pastoring, I was a part of a local church and supported it. Should the Lord tarry his coming long enough that I retire, I will be a part of a local church, and support it and assist my pastor in any and every way that I can.
In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus told a parable of a wise man who built his house upon a rock. If we do what Jesus said, we will remain on the sure foundation... one that will stand.
The church has stood the test of time.
2 comments:
Good Post! The trend today is that today's church is outdated and has wounded everyone, so people leave, issues unresolved and hurts unhealed. What they fail to realize is that they take their stuff with them, and it continues to affect them and infect others because it becomes the basis of their new ministry and the center of their discussion. Churches and pastors are imperfect simply because of humanity, but the Word of the Lord and the Lord of that Word remain perfect. People will always flock to fads and fazes, they will come and go, love them and pastor them while they're there and bless them as they go, God will send the increase!
church is like family, Pastor...when we lose touch with our family we tend to forget where we came from..same with church..when we don't connect with our brothers and sisters in church and we don't go..we lose touch of where we came from...and most important Who we came from...we need to treat church like it is our family...love each other and get together as much as you can!
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