This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: Let Easter Change you: Godly Community! (WATCH HERE)
For a while in America and around the world every church was empty. The fear of spreading or catching a virus led to mandates that locked the doors of Christian churches around the world. Perhaps one day individuals will look back to the spring of 2020 and lock it in as a day when people stopped not just going to church, but thinking that church was important. They continued to perhaps get content online, and even more content than they were getting as some shared they were watching two or three services on a Sunday morning and taking in the content of that pastor and the teaching he provided.
Then the question came, “Why do I have to GO to church when I can WATCH church online?” Good question. When I can watch a sermon online and read my Bible at home, what is left to grow in my faith that I can’t do on my own?
So how would you answer this question to someone who asks, or if you are someone watching online, how would you answer this question or statement? (To be clear, the technology to bring God’s Word into people’s homes when there is not an option to get out is a TRUE blessing and opportunity for spiritual growth.)
There are two distinct growth opportunities that don’t come when a person is isolated on their own and watching online without any connection to the church they are watching.
First, God designed his church to have overseers and pastors and teachers. These individuals are asked to be an undershepherd of the Good Shepherd. Like the Good Shepherd, they are to know their sheep and their sheep to know them. They are to care for them, watch over them, lead them and feed them in a spiritual way. If one is disconnected from a church, there is no direct connection to a spiritual shepherd who has a direct connection to them. Why does it matter? A Christian church is led by a Christian pastor who is tasked with watching over you spiritually to make sure you grow in the grace of God and are guarded from the threats to your faith.
Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
If one is not active in a local church, they miss this blessing to their growth in faith.
Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Being active members in a local, God-willing, gives one access to intentional training and equipping one receives to put their faith into practice and work together for the common growth of God’s church.
Second, God allows interpersonal interactions within the church to be a training and practice ground to put what we learn into practice. The church is intended to be a place where you can make mistakes and be forgiven. The church is a place where you get to exercise your faith to exhibit in more abundance the fruit of faith in Galatians 5:22-23. People around us create the environment where we can move our faith from the academic to the applicable. How do you show kindness on your own? Or does God provide needs within his church for us to be able to practice kindness? You might struggle with patience and understanding. The people of a church are opportunities to practice these two Christian characteristics. You can think about it on your own…only can you practice it in person.
Yes, you can read your Bible on your own…PLEASE do! You can get spiritual content on the internet. Use it! But you can’t get a real live shepherd and a group of people willing to let us practice our faith in a safe setting without belonging to a local, visible, Christian church. So recommit to your church or consider committing for the first time to a local church (Can I invite you to crosspointgtx.com?).
Apply: What role has your pastor played in your spiritual growth? What interpersonal situations at a church have allowed your faith to grow because you had to interact face-to-face with that person.
Prayer: Lord thank you for the gift of your church with undershepherds to watch over me. AMEN.