Why Do We Go to Church?

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25).

"What then, brothers (and sisters)? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up" (1 Corinthians 14:26).

This morning my son asked me, "Why do we go to church?"

We study the Bible together at home; we pray at home; and we sing at home. My son also knows that the vast majority of my personal "ministry" takes place in my everyday life---at home with my family and on my job as a mail carrier. He knows that my coworkers and customers often come to me with questions about the Christian faith and with prayer requests. In fact, only a small part of our lives is spent at the church building or engaged in official church-related projects. He wonders why we meet with the church at all, since it takes up such a small percentage of our time during the week.

I told him that we meet as a church primarily for encouragement. We need encouragement to keep following Christ, and our fellow Christians need encouragement from us to keep following Christ. It's true that most of our lives are not spent in church meetings, but those meetings serve a good purpose. It can be discouraging to think that we are alone in our spiritual lives; but being in the physical presence of other committed followers of Jesus as we worship, serve, and share our lives together can give us a shot of courage that could be essential in keeping us going and being productive.

I'm sure that there are many other good reasons to go to church, but that's the answer that immediately came to my mind.

Ordinary Christians

Sometimes it's good to notice the extraordinary impact of ordinary Christians around me.

These are the Christians who serve God faithfully without knowing how much of a difference they are making in the world around them.

They love and respect their husbands and wives. They honor their parents. They nurture, discipline, and instruct their children.

They show up to work on time and ready for the day. They approach their jobs with good attitudes. They care about their co-workers, employees, and customers. They take the time to listen to the concerns of others, sometimes offering helpful advice and sometimes offering a prayer. They are sincere in their gratitude when they are helped; and they are willing to help others whenever possible.

They spend time reading their Bibles and praying. They want to be close to their Lord. They want to know him better. They believe what they read in their Bibles; and they trust that God is listening to their pleas on behalf of the people for whom they pray.

They enjoy worshipping with their local churches. They participate in and teach Bible classes. They clean the church buildings. They mow the grass and shovel the snow on the church's property. They serve food when the church shares meals. They drive the vans to pick up people who want to worship with them.

They volunteer to help teachers at their local schools. They coach and support their children's sports teams. They are involved in their children's scouting programs. They e-mail and meet with their political leaders in support of just legislation or in opposition to unjust legislation. They raise money to fight diseases. They recycle paper, plastic, and aluminum products to help the environment. They get their pets from the local animal shelter.

They share the good news of Christ whenever an opportunity arises. They adopt children, volunteer for pro-life ministries, and sponsor children around the world through Christian relief organizations. They send money to organizations that fight global poverty and others that translate the Scriptures into native languages around the world.

They are ordinary Christians, but they are intentionally committed to doing good so that others are blessed and God is glorified.

"...let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

Remember Those Who Are in Prison

Christian prisoner Said Musa in Afghanistan

"Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body" (Hebrews 13:3).

"On May 24 (2010), Said Musa was arrested by government authorities in Afghanistan following a television broadcast that showed Christian baptisms and worship, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts.

"Musa has openly professed his faith, and he was interrogated about his conversion to Christianity on national television in June" (www.prisoneralert.com).

Said Musa is one among many Christians worldwide who are in prison for their faith in Jesus Christ. Like Mr. Musa, they are being abused and mistreated simply for believing in Christ and refusing to deny their faith. Like Mr. Musa, they are facing the death penalty for their faith.

Recently, I discovered that free Christians can write letters of encouragement to some of these persecuted believers in their own languages. If you would like to write to some of these fellow followers of Christ, check out www.prisoneralert.com.

Please let them know that they are appreciated. Let them know that they have not been forgotten. Keep them in your prayers. Life is difficult for them. And they could use a little encouragement.

Making a Positive Impact

Sometimes Christians are best known for what we are against. We oppose same-sex marriage, abortion, and sexual immorality. We speak out against those sins; and that's absolutely appropriate. Those sins (among many others) are destroying us and the people we love. We can't remain silent. We care too much.

However, we cannot be satisfied with a purely negative approach when dealing with such issues. We need to be eager to do good in these areas.

How can we make a positive impact? We can...

*teach the biblical message about marriage, life, and sex.
*invite friends to marriage enrichment seminars.
*support a local crisis pregnancy resource center or adoption agency.
*mentor young husbands and fathers or wives and mothers.
*adopt a child.
*extend forgiveness and encouragement to those who have failed.
*let everyone know what Jesus Christ has done to take away our sins and to give us new lives.

The possibilities are nearly endless; and they have not been exhausted.

"And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful" (Titus 3:14).

An Update on the Weekend to Remember Contest

Last month, I conducted a contest on this blog. My wife and I paid the registration fees for two couples to attend FamilyLife's A Weekend to Remember marriage conferences.

Last night, one of the winning couples let me know that they attended one of the conferences in New England last weekend. They were grateful for the opportunity to rebuild their relationship with God and their marriage. They let me know that the conference exceeded all their expectations.

I was thankful for the update. God had used my blog to help others and to honor his name.

I don't know how many people read this blog, but I suspect that it is relatively few. I don't know how either of the contest winners even found my blog. But I am thankful that God has used this blog to bless a few other people and to show people a little more clearly his goodness.

I want to add this encouragement to any fellow bloggers who may stumble upon this blog: Please don't waste your blog. Concentrate on blessing other people and glorifying God with your blog. You don't need to be a professional minister to make a difference. (I deliver the mail for a living.) You don't need to have many readers. You can make a difference with what God has given you.

"...grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift" (Ephesians 4:7).
Use it to honor him.

Murder and Urban Ministry

I've been thinking about the importance of urban ministry in a violent society for the last few days.

At the end of last week, a 16-year old boy was walking home from his bus stop when a car pulled up alongside him. After an exchange of a few words, someone in the car opened fire and murdered the kid.

According to news accounts of the incident, the murdered young man was a good student with a pleasant personality and respectful attitude. Unfortunately, he lived in a "bad part of town"--a euphemism for the poor, black, and violent section of the city.

On Sunday morning, a few of the teenagers in the Contact Church requested prayers for the murdered boy's family as they mourned his death. According to the prayer requests, the criminals who murdered the boy did so after he could not (or would not) tell them the location of someone else for whom they were looking.

As I have thought about the situation this week, I have come to have a deeper appreciation for the Contact Church. The urban poor need such churches. Like everyone else, they need safe people with whom they can share their struggles. They need to be able to get together in safe places and pray for the people they deeply love. They need the encouragement of gathering with and working alongside people who share their faith in Jesus Christ. They need people who will share the gospel of God's love with them so that, if they meet a violent end to their lives this week, they will be prepared for heaven.

During times like these, I feel honored to be a part of such a church.

Daddy, What's a Wuss?

Last night during our football scrimmage, Christopher came to me and said, "Daddy, that boy I'm going against spit at me and called me a 'wuss.' What's a wuss?"

As one of his assistant coaches and his father, I told Christopher, "Don't worry about it right now. Just go out there and knock that boy on his rear every time. Don't let him intimidate you. You are tougher than him. He can't handle you, so he's trying to scare you. But you're better than that. You can take him."

We are going to run across those kind of people in our lives, the type of people who call names but who cannot back up their words. Sometimes I am called a racist because I am pro-life. I have been accused of being apathetic toward the poor because I do not buy into Emergent theology. My job is to live my life in such a way as to make the accusations look as stupid as they are. Christopher's job on the football field is to make the boy wonder who the real wuss is...the name-caller or the boy who is acting with class while knocking him on his rear every play?

I was reminded of this verse from 1 Kings 20:11, "One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off." Prove yourself by your actions. Don't boast before you have proven yourself capable of backing up your words.

The Contact Church: A Different Kind of Church

Sometimes I take the Contact Church for granted. I forget about how different it is, until I talk to a visitor or invite someone to worship services.

This morning, I ran across Randy (one of our Contact Church members) and his boss while I was working. They were cutting down a tree in the yard of one of our Bible class teachers.

Randy's boss has visited the Contact Church several times and loves it. As he said, "At Contact, you don't worry about religion. You just love the people." I'm sure he meant that we don't worry about formalism and ritualism in our worship services. Instead, we concentrate on caring about each other and our visitors.

I started to think about some of our different practices. For example, we have a period in our worship assembly which we call prayer and praise. For about ten minutes, someone will approach the podium and take praise reports and prayer requests from the congregation. Everyone is welcome to tell us what makes them thankful or what concerns them at that time. Close to 90% of the comments are praise reports (ranging from "I'm thankful for my dog" to "Jesus is coming back"). The remainder consists of prayer requests (ranging from "My neighbor is in the hospital" to "My grandson is in jail").

When someone responds at the end of the service with a need for prayer, the entire congregation goes forward with him or her. The church surrounds the individual and lays hands on him or her as we pray for the person's concerns. If someone confesses faith in Christ and the desire to repent along with a request for baptism, the congregation surrounds him or her after the baptism and everyone gets an opportunity to offer words of encouragement before someone leads us in prayer for the new believer.

Throughout the morning, children (who make up roughly half of the 160 or so people in the assembly) roam the aisles with adults trying to gain some control over the clowns and darlins (as our minister refers to them). It makes for a lively worship service. Since most of the children do not have parents in the assembly, the adults have learned to take responsibility for more than their own children.

Most of the worship service is interactive. In addition to the prayer and praise portion of the service, the children will interact with the children's minister on stage before going to classes after our communion service. During the sermon, members of the congregation will speak to the preacher (whether he asks a question or not). (When I lead the prayer and praise or the communion service, Christopher will stand up front with me. Children tend to like to be on stage with adults. When we visit other churches, I'm always a little concerned that Christopher will not know how to act in a normal church, but he always does fine, despite what he is used to.)

We don't have calm and quiet worship services (except sometimes when the children are in summer camp...but not all the time even then). The Contact Church is a little different, but we always walk away encouraged to live a Christ-honoring lifestyle. It's different, but good.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:23-25).

Intimidation and Encouragement

"Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10, NIV).

Followers of Christ face some intimidating factors within our society. We are tempted to become timid and shrink back from our allegiance to our Savior. We see opinion polls which suggest that most of our neighbors who claim Christ as Lord do not believe him when he says that no one comes to his Father except through him. We are tempted to deny Jesus along with them so as to be non-offensive. We read books telling us that people see us as unChristian when we say that homosexuality and unnecessary abortions are sins against God. In an attempt to be popular, we are tempted to become silent about such issues, or worse yet, deny the biblical truth about them. Rather than kindly offering helpful teaching and opportunities for forgiveness and positive change, we are tempted to succumb to the social intimidation of our age.

When I am tempted to remain silent or to deny Christ, I think of some of my Christian heroes. I think of a couple of Christians who have spent their lives as missionaries in a hostile environment. They work in a country in which Christianity is illegal. They face the possibility of death as they work to get the good news of Jesus Christ to the people around them. Occasionally, members of their small network of house churches disappear in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again. They do not seem to worry about building emergent, seeker-friendly, or trendy churches. They are concerned about building up strong and faithful disciples of our Savior. Their faithfulness encourages me to follow Jesus despite my relatively small obstacles. They give me the courage to seek faithfulness instead of popularity.