WHY IS THE CHURCH IMPORTANT?
Geoffrey R. Kirkland
In this brief article, I will explain why the local church is important. Someone recently said to me: I know Christ, but I don’t need the Church. Or maybe you’ve heard: I like Christ but I’ve been burnt by the Church. I’m all for Jesus but not for the “organized religion”.
The Word of God addresses all of these statements in plenteous ways, but for the purpose here I wish to answer the question as to why the church is important. If you claim to be a believer, then why do you need the Church? That is to say, if you are a professing Christian, you need a local congregation of converted, Christ-honoring worshipers to gather with regularly.
In what follows, I will provide a handful of reasons why the church is vitally and unarguably important for you.
FOR YOUR SOUL’S SAKE
God has given His children a family to meet with and gather with and grow with for many reasons, one of which is your own spiritual good. You need a local congregation of believers for your eternal, soul’s good. You cannot be saved by going to church but a sinner saved by God’s grace thru Christ knows he cannot live without nor thrive healthily apart from a gathered assembly of saints.
FOR YOUR LEADERS’ SAKE
You need the church for the sake of the shepherd-leaders. God has given elder-pastors to lead and oversee local church assemblies and to care for the people of God. You really need a local congregation for the leaders to know who they must shepherd and who they will give account for on that final day. Without meaningful and deliberate membership and accountability in a particular, local congregation, your soul is like a sheep wandering without an under-shepherd to feed, lead, guide, pursue, and nurture.
FOR YOUR CONGREGATION’S SAKE
Every local church is comprised of believers. By definition, the church comprises the assembly of called-out ones. You must see the importance of the local church so that a congregation will know whom to reach out to, whom they’re accountable for, and whom is on the inside (that is, not on the ‘outside’). You need the gathered assembly for the sake of the church so that the church knows who to care for, minister to, devote energy, resources, time, and service to.
FOR YOUR SPIRITUAL-GIFTEDNESS’S SAKE
The Christian must have a local assembly they have plugged into for the purpose of spiritual service and Christian ministry. You need the church for you to have a place to utilize and grow in and employ your spiritual good, for the benefit of others. You cannot use your spiritual gift individually or privately and for your own sake or benefit because a spiritual gift, by definition, is a God-bestowed grace-gift for you to use with other believers for the purpose of edification and building up of the body of Christ.
FOR YOUR MATURATION’S SAKE
Quite simply, you cannot grow without the church, a local church, a gathered assembly of worshipers. You could study theology and have an online-preacher you frequent, but you will not grow in both ascribing worship to God and in ministering to the saints, and in obeying the one another’s if you do not invest yourself in a local assembly.
FOR YOUR HEAVENLY-PREPAREDNESS’S SAKE
Amazingly and to the bewilderment of the world around us, Christians do not live merely for this world, but for the next. And let’s face it, heaven is quite a large gathering! If you wish to be well-prepared for the corporate worship, the assembled gathering, the loud singing, the Christocentric worship in endless bliss, then you shall certainly want to prepare now in gathering with like-minded worshipers who long for that eternal shore!
FOR YOUR PROFESSION’S SAKE
You claim to be a Christian, a member of the body of Christ. How can you profess to be part of the body while living disassociated to the body you claim to be part of? Your human body does not even function like that. How much more important is your undying soul! You make a profession to know Jesus and be connected to Him by faith, but you choose to not join yourself to a congregation? That is senseless and harmful. You profess to know Christ, then possess the love that Christ has for His church in your own heart as you join yourself deliberately to a local congregation of believers.
Philippians 1:7 — For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.
Additional resources and podcasts on the local church.
