Monday, May 4, 2009

9 reasons why every young person should be actively involved in a local church:

You Build Solid and Lasting Relationships

    1. Acts 2:42

You should get more involved in a local church because this is the venue where you will build lasting, deep, and intimate relationships with other likeminded believers who love God, love His Word, and seek to obey Him. You will have friends that you can come to when times are rough and you need prayer; you will have friends with whom you can share encouraging stories.

  1. You Are Held Accountable by Church Leadership
    1. Heb 13
    2. 1 Thess 5

You should get more involved in a local church because this is where you will primarily be held accountable by your church leadership—your pastor and the elders. For a Christian, it is absolutely imperative to be under men of God who are sovereignly placed in the area of leadership to shepherd, guard, protect, and warn Christians. This is a non-negotiable in the Christian life. This is where accountability takes place. This is where spiritual growth happens. If one refuses to be under church leadership, then one has great reason to question as to whether they are really a Christian, because we are all called to be held accountable by other solid believers.

  1. You Are Confronted When You Stumble into Sin
    1. Matt 18
    2. Gal 6
    3. 1 Cor 5

You should get more involved in a local church because the friends that you have made, and the leadership that God has placed over you will know you, see how you live life, and encourage you when you’re growing and excelling, and they will also rebuke, discipline, and correct you when you wander off and fall into sin. The local church is the venue that God has sovereignly chosen for intimate relationships to help each other out and confront one another when another believer dips into sin or errs onto a wayward path.

  1. You Can Serve God Week to Week in a Specific Area
    1. 1 Cor 11
    2. Eph 4
    3. 1 Peter 4

You should get more involved in a local church because this is the body of Christ and God has gifted you with specific gifts and you can serve Him week to week in the local body of Christ. This is where you can have a “role” and a “responsibility” in doing work in God’s vineyard to help the body function properly and effectively. Faithfulness is the key here.

  1. You Can Faithfully Fill a Gap that Others Cannot Fill
    1. 1 Cor 11

You should get more involved in a local church because God has gifted you with specific gifts that he has not gifted to others. Perhaps you have a talent, gift, or passion for something or some area of the church that no one else in that local church has that same talent, gift, or passion for. God can use you and the desires that He has given you to serve Him in the local body of Christ.

  1. You Are Commanded to Be Involved by God
    1. 1 Cor 11
    2. Eph 4

You should get more involved in a local church simply because God commanded it. God has revealed in His Word that the body of Christ is where all men will be built up into the fullness and maturity of Christ. This is where God works and this is the primary means of evangelism and fellowship in the believer’s life. Therefore, God commands Christians to be involved in the local church. If you want to honor God and live a life of obedience to God and His Word, then you must be involved in a local church!

  1. You Can Hear God’s Word Taught Regularly and Clearly
    1. 2 Tim 4:1-4
    2. 1 Tim 4:13-17

You should get more involved in a local church because this is the primary venue where you can gather with God’s people and hear the faithful, accurate, and applicable exposition of God’s Word faithfully taught week by week. God has given pastors a solemn charge to preach the Word of God every week. Every time the pastor steps up to preach, he must deliver the word of God from the Word of God as the voice of God. You should be involved in the local church because—as a believer—you are hungry to learn more about God and about His Word to you (i.e., the Bible) and the local church is the primary avenue to which you will be fed God’s Word regularly.

  1. You Can Invite Friends and Schoolmates To Church and Introduce Them to Everyone.
    1. Matt 28

You should get more involved in a local church because this is the place where you can bring visitors, neighbors, coworkers, classmates, family members and other strangers to church and introduce them to your friends at church who will lovingly reach out to them and seek to extend the love of Christ to the visitor. This is an easy way to bring visitors and help them feel welcome. If you don’t know anyone at the church you attend, how hard it would be to invite others and introduce them to others there at church.

  1. You Remind Yourself that Church Involvement is So Important and Not an Option
    1. Heb 10:24-25
    2. Acts 2:42
    3. Heb 13:5

You should get more involved in a local church because church involvement—though time consuming—is a discipline of the Christian life. It’s easy to sit at home and watch TV or play video games. It’s a discipline to get up, gather the kids, get dressed, and drive to church weekly—even numerous times per week. It’s work; it’s a discipline; it’s hard; but it’s so rewarding. And in doing this “discipline,” you constantly remind yourself that you are making the conscious effort and deliberate choice to make church involvement a priority in your life. It should get to the point that nothing interrupts the gathering of believers together. This principle simply is an application of “disciplining yourself for godliness (1 Tim 4:7).

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