February 28, 2025 • 30 mins
The conversation delves into the idea of active church participation and its profound effect on families and communities. By examining Thom Rainer's book, "I Am a Church Member," we explore what it truly means to invest in and love our local churches, transcending mere attendance to become integral community members.
We discuss the critical importance of teaching our children about faith, community, and the purpose of being part of a church. By modeling involvement and service, we can instill a love for the church that will carry through generations. In this podcast, we tackle the alarming trend of declining church attendance among younger generations and offer insights into how families can forge stronger connections with their churches.
Throughout the episode, we reflect on the historical context of church communities, highlighting their function as vital support networks and the transformations they have undergone over time. The episode serves as a rallying cry for parents and families to embrace and actively participate in their local churches, fostering a love for this cornerstone of faith and community. We invite our audience to engage, reflect, and consider their role in nurturing church involvement, believing that loving one's local church is not just a personal journey, but a collective mission with eternal consequences. Join the conversation and explore how we can better love and serve our churches together.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, hope everyone's doing good.
So week five of I Am a ChurchMember, right.
So this week we're going to belooking at once again.
We've been reading through as achurch, we've been reading
through Tom Rainer's book.
I Am a Church Member and Ithink it's offered some really
(00:21):
good insight into what does itactually mean to be part of a
church and to be plugged in, andI think that that's a really
important thing.
I was reading the other daythat one of the things that
helps with.
So when you talk about churches,one of the conversations you
(00:42):
hear sometimes in the context ofchurches you know, close the
back door and the reason thatstatement comes around is it
kind of talks about how churchescan sometimes be this revolving
door.
You have people come in andpeople leave, sometimes at the
same time.
Sometimes the same people comein and they leave in a couple
(01:02):
weeks.
There's always that question ofretention.
How do you maintain thatretention of people who are
coming in and first-time guests?
These have been churchconversations forever.
One of the things that theyfound out, at least in the last
(01:25):
couple of years, is teachinghaving a strong membership class
Like what does it mean to be achurch member?
It can actually be a reallyhealthy way to help kind of
retain people.
And there's a couple of reasonsfor that, one being you kind of
lay out the expectations ofwhat the church believes and
their doctrine and theirteaching, and then the other
(01:47):
part of that is helping peopleto kind of get engaged and
figure out how they can serve,because you tend to have people
who leave not always but most ofthe time it's because they're
not sure how to get plugged inor they're kind of struggling
with you know how can I be ofservice?
Because they want to beinvolved.
And sometimes, when you're in asmaller church, that can be a
(02:08):
little bit of a challengebecause you know the roles
aren't as many and you know, Ithink even sometimes in a big
church that can be a challengebecause you know you might not
feel able or capable of doingthat right, capable of doing
(02:29):
that right.
So week five so part of thereason why we're doing this
class is we're trying to helppeople to understand what does
it look like to be a healthychurch member, because a healthy
church member makes a healthychurch.
And so week five actuallyteaches on the importance of
teaching your family, and that'sthe title of Chapter 5, is I
will teach my family members tobe healthy church members, and
(02:52):
that's such an important concept.
And let me just kind of laythis out.
So I have three boys Everett,griffin and Miles right, and
their expectation of the churchis probably a little different
than most people, most kids,partly because I work for the
(03:18):
church, so on Sunday morningsit's a little different for them
, you know timing-wise, and youknow we kind of joke about this,
but you know they spend a lotof time at the church during the
week, more than most kids do,because you know Danny and I are
down here working on somethingand so our kids kind of have
free reign of the place.
Well, there's nothing wrongwith that, but sometimes it can
(03:41):
be a little much because we goto other churches and they
assume they can do a lot of thesame stuff they can do at our
church.
Right, and that's just.
That's not how it works.
But the reason why we have ourkids so active and so involved
in what we're doing is because Iwant them to understand that
church is important the being apart of the church, serving in
the church, participating in theevents of the church,
(04:05):
surrounding yourself with churchmembers.
So on Thursday nights at ourhouse we have a community group
that meets and we invite peoplefrom the church and their
families to come, and so we'rekind of setting the groundwork
for our kids that being part ofthe community of believers is
something that you're activelydoing all the time, right?
(04:25):
So my kids understand thatchurch is more than just
something we do on Sundaymorning, it's something we do
during the week, it's somethingwe do when we're out and we're
having conversations with peopleor we're at basketball games or
we're at Cub Scouts.
You know like the church goeswith us and churches when we
meet in our home on Thursdaynights and we have groups and we
(04:46):
have a meal together, and sothere's just this kind of for me
and my wife.
We're trying to instill in themthat church is important.
We oftentimes build our lifearound the functions of the
church.
And listen, that's not justbecause I worked there, even
(05:07):
when I wasn't working inchurches, you know, I had a
couple years there betweenchurches where I had warehouse
jobs.
We built our life aroundserving in the church and being
part of the church and being apart of groups, and it was
important for us to see and forour kids to see that church was
(05:27):
something that we do, notsomething we go to necessarily,
but something that we do as awhole.
We model for our kids theimportance of church and the
(05:48):
importance of that community.
And listen, it looks differentfor everybody.
I realize the landscape ischanging, you know.
Home churches are popping upall over the place, which is an
incredible movement, by the way,you know.
But you still have your moretraditional churches that meet
regularly on Sundays, and somechurches have Saturday night
(06:10):
services.
But the goal is to help our kidsunderstand how important church
is and how important it is tobe a part of a community of
believers who are workingtogether with the focus of Jesus
in mind.
Right, and that's somethingthat you teach not only by
(06:35):
telling your kids but bydemonstrating for them that this
matters.
This is important to us, likethis is how we develop our
relationship with God, and soTime Rainer talks about this in
chapter five of this book is youknow, I'm going to raise my
(06:57):
family to love the church, tolove the church that I'm in, to
be excited about what the churchis doing, to be engaged with
the activities of the church, tobuild relationships within the
community of the church, to havethat reliance on the church.
And going back to chapter four,praying for your leadership he
(07:20):
talks about this kind of brieflyin chapter five, like praying
for your church, praying for thefuture of the church, praying
for everything that's happeningand that's such an important
thing that I feel like,culturally, we've shifted away
from.
You know, I think it's funny ifyou go back not to beat a dead
(07:44):
horse, because I know I've hadthis conversation before, but
you go back 40, 50 years thecenter of most people's lives
was built around the church.
Communities were, you know,churches were in communities and
so much was happening at thelocal church.
You know there were so manyevents and many events and
(08:05):
people met in the halls.
There was this understandingthat church was just a part of
your life, that it's somethingthat you did, it's something
that was significant, and thensomewhere along the way we've
shifted from that.
We lost sight of that and Ithink there's a couple of
reasons for that.
(08:25):
I think part of it is becausewe had a generation that was
trying to seek truth and theyhad some doubts and they had
some questions and they weren'twell-received.
They were kind of turned off bythat.
I think you saw a little bit ofpeople walk away because it
(08:47):
felt like it was more forced.
So there was a lot of hey, youknow you have to do this, and
people were struggling with thata little bit.
And then, I think, you get aheada couple decades and you kind
of see the church movement andit kind of explodes and all of a
sudden it becomes this churchesbecome more this business type
(09:11):
focus and you know, you haveyour mega churches and well, I'm
not saying mega churches arebad, but I think they created
this culture of it became aboutthe money and it became about
all the things they could do andthe bigger building and the
nicer seats and all this stuff.
And somewhere along the line Ithink we lost the importance of
(09:31):
the community that creates money, the church itself.
We lost sight of that communaleffort because we were focused
on the building, or we werefocused on the money, or we were
focused on the numbers, or wedidn't let people wrestle with
(09:53):
their faith and we kind of beatit in their head that they had
to think this way or that wayand there was really no way
around it.
And then you know, then theworld happens right.
And then you know the worldbecomes complicated and sin kind
of rears its ugly head and youknow we start attacking people
and not addressing the sin thatwe struggle with.
And so we just there's all ofthis conflict that happened and
(10:16):
at some point we have forgottenthat the church was meant to be
this family, surrounded andfocused on the finished work of
Christ on the cross.
Right, that was the purpose wasto come together to worship God,
(10:40):
to remind ourselves that we'veall been saved through Christ,
and to create this familydynamic and to build each other
up and to love each other and tosupport each other and to pray
for each other.
And instead we created likethis country club mentality and
(11:00):
Tom Rainer talks about that inthis book a lot.
We created this country cluband so all of a sudden the
church became what can I get outof it?
What can it do for me?
And if I don't like it, thenI'm going to go to the church
down the street.
And if I don't like that churchthen there's another church
down the street.
I guess I'm going to go to thatone.
And so somewhere along the linethe focus of the church became
(11:24):
self-serving and we becameselfish.
But if you look, you go all theway back to the book of Acts.
Especially Acts chapter 2 is ahuge part of that.
The early church was aboutselflessness.
It was about providing for eachother.
It was about providing for eachother.
It was about praying for eachother.
It was about coming togetherwith the apostles' teachings and
(11:45):
sharing of meals together, andthe focus was to create this
community.
And so somewhere along the linewe got away from that.
But what's interesting isthere's this shift that's coming
back around, because people arerealizing that they want that
type of community and they'refinding it back in the local
(12:07):
church, and so church isstarting to look different, and
I think that's one of thereasons why the house church
movement currently in thiscountry is exploding.
It's because people are gettingtogether in their homes and
they're worshiping God togetherand they're sharing meals
together and they're creatingthis life together.
(12:27):
Right, and so all of that'simportant, because we have to
teach our families is that beingpart of a church matters, and
not just showing up on Sundaymornings, but actively
(12:50):
participating in the work of thekingdom which is being done by
the church, actively beinginvolved in community outreach,
actively participating in theevents and sharing the gospel
with those around us, activelytaking our faith and going into
school and going to work andtelling people about Jesus,
(13:10):
actively choosing to invitepeople in to join our own
community Like that's what itmeans to love.
The church is in spite ofitself, sometimes in spite of
the human side of it, which isflawed, and people aren't
perfect and people make mistakes.
I'm going to love the localchurch.
(13:30):
I'm going to love my localchurch and I'm going to invest
my time and my energy into it,because the local church I'm
part of is a bigger part of theuniversal church, right?
So that's the work of God.
So my local church is a verysmall part in the bigger picture
of the kingdom work and if mychurch is further in the kingdom
(13:53):
of God, then I'm going to lovethat church and I'm going to
participate in that church andI'm going to be part of that
church and I'm actually going bepart of that church and I'm
actually going to show up andI'm actually going to do things
and that's such an importantconcept that we've lost.
Go back a couple years whenCOVID happened.
It really really shifted usoutward and we talk about this
(14:19):
in our own church and I'm gladthat we offer an online service
and people can watch, and wehave a couple from Canada which
I think is cool that they'rerelated to a couple that goes
here.
But the fact that they evenwatch us online is great.
But at the same time, sittingin your home watching an online
service is not truly beingengaged in what God has called
(14:47):
us to do.
You know, there's this ideathat's prevalent in our culture
that you that I don't needchurch to follow God and listen.
I would argue you do.
I don't need church to followGod and listen, I would argue
you do.
I would argue.
(15:12):
Throughout all of Scripture,there is no indication anywhere
that people ever just went offon their own and did this by
themselves and somehow managedto figure it out.
Church was always built aroundthe community.
It was always built aroundpeople coming together for the
sole purpose of worshiping theGod who created them and then
going out into their communities, going out to their jobs, going
out to where they live locallyand spreading the message of the
(15:35):
gospel and then repeating thateffort.
So being part of the localchurch is an essential part of
being a member.
That's one of the requirements.
But as a member I am thenchallenged and I should
(15:57):
understand and I should see thatas an opportunity to love my
church, to love the people of mychurch, to be someone who's
seeking the kingdom and seekingGod and all that I'm doing, but
using that as an opportunity tofurther the kingdom through the
(16:17):
local church that I'm connectedto and then modeling that for my
kids and letting them see andunderstand that church matters
to us because the church mattersto God.
That, in a nutshell, I think,sums up one of the biggest
(16:51):
struggles we find with churchmembers today.
We have to get back to thisrealization that the church that
I'm part of, god is calling meto love that church, to pray for
that church, to participate andbe part of the work of that
church, because the work of thatchurch is the work of the
kingdom.
And in this little town ofFollinsby, west Virginia, our
(17:13):
church is called to go out intothe community and to love people
and to build people up and bethe light to the world.
And you and I are called to dothat collectively, together and
so raising my kids to understandthat that, whatever church I'm
part of, that hey, this matters.
Being part of the churchoftentimes takes priority over
(17:37):
everything else, and it should,and the reason I believe that is
because the work of the churchis the only thing that's eternal
.
We're talking about life anddeath.
We're talking about heaven andhell.
We're talking about salvation.
We have this incredible journeythat we're part of, that you
(18:00):
and I get to participate in.
We get to go into the world andtalk about the saving work of
Jesus everywhere we go.
We get to help peopleunderstand what it is to follow
him, to make the decision toaccept him and to watch lives be
transformed, and that'ssomething that we have to teach
our families is important, andit's more important than
(18:22):
anything else, because it's theonly thing at the end of the
world that's going to last.
But when I die, the only thingthat I can take with me are the
(18:42):
people that I've shared thegospel message with.
The only chance that I have tosee my kids in the world to come
is to teach them now and raisethem to understand why it's so
important to accept Jesus.
The only thing that I can takewith me upon my death and the
(19:04):
only hope that I have, is themen and women and the family
members and the co-workers thatI've brought to the knowledge of
Jesus.
That's it.
Nothing else goes with me.
No amount of money, no amountof property, none of that.
All of that will rust away andfade away.
(19:26):
But the people that I love, theones that I share the message
of Christ with, the ones that Ispend my time trying to disciple
and help them grow in theirmaturity, and all of that, all
of those people and all of thepeople in my church, my family,
(19:49):
my church family, those are thethings that I can take with me.
That's why, as hard as it canbe sometimes being part of a
church, that's also the reasonwhy I believe we should love the
local church.
Whatever church you're part of,you should love that church.
(20:14):
You should serve that church tothe best of your ability.
You should give to that churchto the best of your ability,
because you're giving to theeternal work of the kingdom that
matters.
That is the only thing at theend of this life that matters,
(20:39):
and if we're not raising ourfamilies to be healthy members
of the church, we're settingthem up for failure.
I came across this kind of anidea.
I don't know if it's a quote,necessarily, but it was on a
(21:01):
podcast and I'm sure you guyshave seen it floating around,
but it talks about parentsraising their kids to go to
church.
And what it says is and I'mgoing to paraphrase this, of
course, because I don't have itin front of me but when one
generation, what's optional forone generation, becomes
(21:25):
unnecessary for the next, and soit's talking about church
attendance and it's talkingabout church involvement, and
it's saying that if parents aremaking church optional or
they're not establishing theimportance of being involved in
the local church, then there's astrong chance that the kids who
(21:48):
follow them will consider itunnecessary altogether.
And listen, that might nothappen right away, but I think
that if you pay attention enough, you see that that if churches
is something you casuallyparticipate in, as your kids get
older, they tend to go lessthan you did.
(22:09):
And then it kind of goes downthe line generation, generation,
and all of a sudden you have anentire generation that doesn't
go to church at all, and and Ithink we're seeing that
culturally.
You know, we, we had an entiregeneration who, you know, felt
the church was important andthen it kind of shifted.
It was kind of important andthen it was like well, it's not
really that important.
(22:30):
And then it's like, well, nowit's not important at all, and
now no one goes right, and sowe've kind of seen this work, so
, so it's not really thatimportant.
And then it's like, well, nowit's not important at all, and
now no one goes Right, and sowe've kind of seen this work.
So it's our responsibility asparents to raise our kids to go
to church, to love the church,to be part of the church, to see
the church through the lens ofJesus and all of its brokenness
(22:51):
and all of the craziness and allof the hurt that sometimes
comes with it.
And listen, I'm not, pleaseunderstand, I'm not undermining
church hurt at all, becausethat's a whole other
conversation for another day.
But still we have to learn toembrace and love the church in
the way that Jesus has called usto love the church, because
(23:13):
Jesus loves the church, in theway that Jesus has called us to
love the church, because Jesusloves the church.
Paul talks about this inEphesians, chapter 6, and he's
using husband and wife analogy,right.
He talks about how a wifeshould submit to her husband,
and then he says that thehusband should love his wife in
the same way that Christ lovesthe church Because Jesus loves
the church.
Jesus loves the local.
(23:34):
Jesus loves the local church.
He established it.
He says this to Peter you knowyou're a rock and on this rock
I'm going to build my church.
Jesus understands and he lovesthe local church so much so that
he was willing to die for it.
Now understand when we'retalking about church, I'm
(23:55):
talking about the people, thepeople that come together, not
the building, not a location andI know we have those.
But the local church is thelocal community of people who
are believers and followers ofChrist.
Jesus loved them enough to diefor them.
He loved the local church.
He loved the local church.
He loved the universal church,all of the work and all of the
(24:18):
nations that were going to cometo know him someday, but he
loves the church.
So that's, if we're healthy inour view of church, we should
love the church.
We should be engaged with thechurch and listen.
You spend time with those youlove.
(24:38):
You build up those you love.
You take care of those you love, you pray for those you love.
So, whatever your situation ismaybe you're part of a
congregation that meetsregularly on a Sunday morning,
(24:58):
maybe you're part of a housechurch.
Listen, maybe you're just partof a Bible study that gets
together once a week.
But whatever your context ofchurch is, wherever that
collective group of people cometogether to worship the God who
created them, I just want toencourage you to love that group
(25:19):
, love your local church, getinvolved, serve, give.
All of these things matterBecause the local church, that's
the plan, that was always theplan.
(25:41):
When Jesus tells them at the endof Matthew to go and make
disciples, baptizing them in thename of the Father, son and the
Holy Spirit and teaching themto obey all that, I command you.
He's telling them to go intothe world and create these
communities, just like I've donefor you, and take that
knowledge and go into the worldand replicate that again and
(26:02):
again.
And so the early church.
You saw a lot of house churchesthat sprung up out of that.
You saw them meeting in thesynagogue on a regular basis and
it's kind of, you know,multiplied into what it is today
.
But that's all because thosepeople love the church, they
love the mission of the churchso much that they actively
participated in taking themessage of the gospel to the
(26:26):
ends of the earth.
Can you imagine if Paul orPeter just decided to stay where
they were and never went anyfarther.
Can you imagine if they didn'treally love the mission of the
church that much and they juststopped sharing the gospel?
You and I would have none ofthis.
(26:48):
And so church is not somethingto belong to, it's not a
membership, it's not a clubmentality.
Church is something that we do.
The local church needs peoplewho love it, need people who
serve in it, need people whogive to it and listen.
(27:11):
That means everybody.
If you are part of a churchservice giving, spreading the
message of the gospel,discipling, spending time with
other believers those arenon-optional things.
That is what we are supposed todo.
That is what will change thechurches in your neighborhood.
(27:33):
By the way, that kind of churchis what's going to change your
community.
A church that not onlyunderstands that it needs each
other but it teaches thosearound them that they need Jesus
too.
Like a church that loves itselfbut also loves its community,
that can transform an entirecity.
(27:53):
I can prove that Biblically.
That happened a lot.
Entire cultures shifted becauseof the local church, and those
who were members and those whowere involved in the spreading
of the gospel Love your church.
(28:18):
Love the church that you'repart of, whatever that looks
like for you.
Love it and then teach yourfamily to do the same.
That that's what's going tochange the current culture.
(28:44):
That is what's going to changethe current churches in this
country.
Jesus loved the church, soshould we.
All right, you guys have a goodday.
Hey, hope everyone's doing good.
So week five of I Am a ChurchMember, right.
So this week we're going to belooking at once again.
We've been reading through as achurch, we've been reading
through Tom Rainer's book.
I Am a Church Member and Ithink it's offered some really
(00:21):
good insight into what does itactually mean to be part of a
church and to be plugged in, andI think that that's a really
important thing.
I was reading the other daythat one of the things that
helps with.
So when you talk about churches,one of the conversations you
(00:42):
hear sometimes in the context ofchurches you know, close the
back door and the reason thatstatement comes around is it
kind of talks about how churchescan sometimes be this revolving
door.
You have people come in andpeople leave, sometimes at the
same time.
Sometimes the same people comein and they leave in a couple
(01:02):
weeks.
There's always that question ofretention.
How do you maintain thatretention of people who are
coming in and first-time guests?
These have been churchconversations forever.
One of the things that theyfound out, at least in the last
(01:25):
couple of years, is teachinghaving a strong membership class
Like what does it mean to be achurch member?
It can actually be a reallyhealthy way to help kind of
retain people.
And there's a couple of reasonsfor that, one being you kind of
lay out the expectations ofwhat the church believes and
their doctrine and theirteaching, and then the other
(01:47):
part of that is helping peopleto kind of get engaged and
figure out how they can serve,because you tend to have people
who leave not always but most ofthe time it's because they're
not sure how to get plugged inor they're kind of struggling
with you know how can I be ofservice?
Because they want to beinvolved.
And sometimes, when you're in asmaller church, that can be a
(02:08):
little bit of a challengebecause you know the roles
aren't as many and you know, Ithink even sometimes in a big
church that can be a challengebecause you know you might not
feel able or capable of doingthat right, capable of doing
(02:29):
that right.
So week five so part of thereason why we're doing this
class is we're trying to helppeople to understand what does
it look like to be a healthychurch member, because a healthy
church member makes a healthychurch.
And so week five actuallyteaches on the importance of
teaching your family, and that'sthe title of Chapter 5, is I
will teach my family members tobe healthy church members, and
(02:52):
that's such an important concept.
And let me just kind of laythis out.
So I have three boys Everett,griffin and Miles right, and
their expectation of the churchis probably a little different
than most people, most kids,partly because I work for the
(03:18):
church, so on Sunday morningsit's a little different for them
, you know timing-wise, and youknow we kind of joke about this,
but you know they spend a lotof time at the church during the
week, more than most kids do,because you know Danny and I are
down here working on somethingand so our kids kind of have
free reign of the place.
Well, there's nothing wrongwith that, but sometimes it can
(03:41):
be a little much because we goto other churches and they
assume they can do a lot of thesame stuff they can do at our
church.
Right, and that's just.
That's not how it works.
But the reason why we have ourkids so active and so involved
in what we're doing is because Iwant them to understand that
church is important the being apart of the church, serving in
the church, participating in theevents of the church,
(04:05):
surrounding yourself with churchmembers.
So on Thursday nights at ourhouse we have a community group
that meets and we invite peoplefrom the church and their
families to come, and so we'rekind of setting the groundwork
for our kids that being part ofthe community of believers is
something that you're activelydoing all the time, right?
(04:25):
So my kids understand thatchurch is more than just
something we do on Sundaymorning, it's something we do
during the week, it's somethingwe do when we're out and we're
having conversations with peopleor we're at basketball games or
we're at Cub Scouts.
You know like the church goeswith us and churches when we
meet in our home on Thursdaynights and we have groups and we
(04:46):
have a meal together, and sothere's just this kind of for me
and my wife.
We're trying to instill in themthat church is important.
We oftentimes build our lifearound the functions of the
church.
And listen, that's not justbecause I worked there, even
(05:07):
when I wasn't working inchurches, you know, I had a
couple years there betweenchurches where I had warehouse
jobs.
We built our life aroundserving in the church and being
part of the church and being apart of groups, and it was
important for us to see and forour kids to see that church was
(05:27):
something that we do, notsomething we go to necessarily,
but something that we do as awhole.
We model for our kids theimportance of church and the
(05:48):
importance of that community.
And listen, it looks differentfor everybody.
I realize the landscape ischanging, you know.
Home churches are popping upall over the place, which is an
incredible movement, by the way,you know.
But you still have your moretraditional churches that meet
regularly on Sundays, and somechurches have Saturday night
(06:10):
services.
But the goal is to help our kidsunderstand how important church
is and how important it is tobe a part of a community of
believers who are workingtogether with the focus of Jesus
in mind.
Right, and that's somethingthat you teach not only by
(06:35):
telling your kids but bydemonstrating for them that this
matters.
This is important to us, likethis is how we develop our
relationship with God, and soTime Rainer talks about this in
chapter five of this book is youknow, I'm going to raise my
(06:57):
family to love the church, tolove the church that I'm in, to
be excited about what the churchis doing, to be engaged with
the activities of the church, tobuild relationships within the
community of the church, to havethat reliance on the church.
And going back to chapter four,praying for your leadership he
(07:20):
talks about this kind of brieflyin chapter five, like praying
for your church, praying for thefuture of the church, praying
for everything that's happeningand that's such an important
thing that I feel like,culturally, we've shifted away
from.
You know, I think it's funny ifyou go back not to beat a dead
(07:44):
horse, because I know I've hadthis conversation before, but
you go back 40, 50 years thecenter of most people's lives
was built around the church.
Communities were, you know,churches were in communities and
so much was happening at thelocal church.
You know there were so manyevents and many events and
(08:05):
people met in the halls.
There was this understandingthat church was just a part of
your life, that it's somethingthat you did, it's something
that was significant, and thensomewhere along the way we've
shifted from that.
We lost sight of that and Ithink there's a couple of
reasons for that.
(08:25):
I think part of it is becausewe had a generation that was
trying to seek truth and theyhad some doubts and they had
some questions and they weren'twell-received.
They were kind of turned off bythat.
I think you saw a little bit ofpeople walk away because it
(08:47):
felt like it was more forced.
So there was a lot of hey, youknow you have to do this, and
people were struggling with thata little bit.
And then, I think, you get aheada couple decades and you kind
of see the church movement andit kind of explodes and all of a
sudden it becomes this churchesbecome more this business type
(09:11):
focus and you know, you haveyour mega churches and well, I'm
not saying mega churches arebad, but I think they created
this culture of it became aboutthe money and it became about
all the things they could do andthe bigger building and the
nicer seats and all this stuff.
And somewhere along the line Ithink we lost the importance of
(09:31):
the community that creates money, the church itself.
We lost sight of that communaleffort because we were focused
on the building, or we werefocused on the money, or we were
focused on the numbers, or wedidn't let people wrestle with
(09:53):
their faith and we kind of beatit in their head that they had
to think this way or that wayand there was really no way
around it.
And then you know, then theworld happens right.
And then you know the worldbecomes complicated and sin kind
of rears its ugly head and youknow we start attacking people
and not addressing the sin thatwe struggle with.
And so we just there's all ofthis conflict that happened and
(10:16):
at some point we have forgottenthat the church was meant to be
this family, surrounded andfocused on the finished work of
Christ on the cross.
Right, that was the purpose wasto come together to worship God,
(10:40):
to remind ourselves that we'veall been saved through Christ,
and to create this familydynamic and to build each other
up and to love each other and tosupport each other and to pray
for each other.
And instead we created likethis country club mentality and
(11:00):
Tom Rainer talks about that inthis book a lot.
We created this country cluband so all of a sudden the
church became what can I get outof it?
What can it do for me?
And if I don't like it, thenI'm going to go to the church
down the street.
And if I don't like that churchthen there's another church
down the street.
I guess I'm going to go to thatone.
And so somewhere along the linethe focus of the church became
(11:24):
self-serving and we becameselfish.
But if you look, you go all theway back to the book of Acts.
Especially Acts chapter 2 is ahuge part of that.
The early church was aboutselflessness.
It was about providing for eachother.
It was about providing for eachother.
It was about praying for eachother.
It was about coming togetherwith the apostles' teachings and
(11:45):
sharing of meals together, andthe focus was to create this
community.
And so somewhere along the linewe got away from that.
But what's interesting isthere's this shift that's coming
back around, because people arerealizing that they want that
type of community and they'refinding it back in the local
(12:07):
church, and so church isstarting to look different, and
I think that's one of thereasons why the house church
movement currently in thiscountry is exploding.
It's because people are gettingtogether in their homes and
they're worshiping God togetherand they're sharing meals
together and they're creatingthis life together.
(12:27):
Right, and so all of that'simportant, because we have to
teach our families is that beingpart of a church matters, and
not just showing up on Sundaymornings, but actively
(12:50):
participating in the work of thekingdom which is being done by
the church, actively beinginvolved in community outreach,
actively participating in theevents and sharing the gospel
with those around us, activelytaking our faith and going into
school and going to work andtelling people about Jesus,
(13:10):
actively choosing to invitepeople in to join our own
community Like that's what itmeans to love.
The church is in spite ofitself, sometimes in spite of
the human side of it, which isflawed, and people aren't
perfect and people make mistakes.
I'm going to love the localchurch.
(13:30):
I'm going to love my localchurch and I'm going to invest
my time and my energy into it,because the local church I'm
part of is a bigger part of theuniversal church, right?
So that's the work of God.
So my local church is a verysmall part in the bigger picture
of the kingdom work and if mychurch is further in the kingdom
(13:53):
of God, then I'm going to lovethat church and I'm going to
participate in that church andI'm going to be part of that
church and I'm actually going bepart of that church and I'm
actually going to show up andI'm actually going to do things
and that's such an importantconcept that we've lost.
Go back a couple years whenCOVID happened.
It really really shifted usoutward and we talk about this
(14:19):
in our own church and I'm gladthat we offer an online service
and people can watch, and wehave a couple from Canada which
I think is cool that they'rerelated to a couple that goes
here.
But the fact that they evenwatch us online is great.
But at the same time, sittingin your home watching an online
service is not truly beingengaged in what God has called
(14:47):
us to do.
You know, there's this ideathat's prevalent in our culture
that you that I don't needchurch to follow God and listen.
I would argue you do.
I don't need church to followGod and listen, I would argue
you do.
I would argue.
(15:12):
Throughout all of Scripture,there is no indication anywhere
that people ever just went offon their own and did this by
themselves and somehow managedto figure it out.
Church was always built aroundthe community.
It was always built aroundpeople coming together for the
sole purpose of worshiping theGod who created them and then
going out into their communities, going out to their jobs, going
out to where they live locallyand spreading the message of the
(15:35):
gospel and then repeating thateffort.
So being part of the localchurch is an essential part of
being a member.
That's one of the requirements.
But as a member I am thenchallenged and I should
(15:57):
understand and I should see thatas an opportunity to love my
church, to love the people of mychurch, to be someone who's
seeking the kingdom and seekingGod and all that I'm doing, but
using that as an opportunity tofurther the kingdom through the
(16:17):
local church that I'm connectedto and then modeling that for my
kids and letting them see andunderstand that church matters
to us because the church mattersto God.
That, in a nutshell, I think,sums up one of the biggest
(16:51):
struggles we find with churchmembers today.
We have to get back to thisrealization that the church that
I'm part of, god is calling meto love that church, to pray for
that church, to participate andbe part of the work of that
church, because the work of thatchurch is the work of the
kingdom.
And in this little town ofFollinsby, west Virginia, our
(17:13):
church is called to go out intothe community and to love people
and to build people up and bethe light to the world.
And you and I are called to dothat collectively, together and
so raising my kids to understandthat that, whatever church I'm
part of, that hey, this matters.
Being part of the churchoftentimes takes priority over
(17:37):
everything else, and it should,and the reason I believe that is
because the work of the churchis the only thing that's eternal
.
We're talking about life anddeath.
We're talking about heaven andhell.
We're talking about salvation.
We have this incredible journeythat we're part of, that you
(18:00):
and I get to participate in.
We get to go into the world andtalk about the saving work of
Jesus everywhere we go.
We get to help peopleunderstand what it is to follow
him, to make the decision toaccept him and to watch lives be
transformed, and that'ssomething that we have to teach
our families is important, andit's more important than
(18:22):
anything else, because it's theonly thing at the end of the
world that's going to last.
But when I die, the only thingthat I can take with me are the
(18:42):
people that I've shared thegospel message with.
The only chance that I have tosee my kids in the world to come
is to teach them now and raisethem to understand why it's so
important to accept Jesus.
The only thing that I can takewith me upon my death and the
(19:04):
only hope that I have, is themen and women and the family
members and the co-workers thatI've brought to the knowledge of
Jesus.
That's it.
Nothing else goes with me.
No amount of money, no amountof property, none of that.
All of that will rust away andfade away.
(19:26):
But the people that I love, theones that I share the message
of Christ with, the ones that Ispend my time trying to disciple
and help them grow in theirmaturity, and all of that, all
of those people and all of thepeople in my church, my family,
(19:49):
my church family, those are thethings that I can take with me.
That's why, as hard as it canbe sometimes being part of a
church, that's also the reasonwhy I believe we should love the
local church.
Whatever church you're part of,you should love that church.
(20:14):
You should serve that church tothe best of your ability.
You should give to that churchto the best of your ability,
because you're giving to theeternal work of the kingdom that
matters.
That is the only thing at theend of this life that matters,
(20:39):
and if we're not raising ourfamilies to be healthy members
of the church, we're settingthem up for failure.
I came across this kind of anidea.
I don't know if it's a quote,necessarily, but it was on a
(21:01):
podcast and I'm sure you guyshave seen it floating around,
but it talks about parentsraising their kids to go to
church.
And what it says is and I'mgoing to paraphrase this, of
course, because I don't have itin front of me but when one
generation, what's optional forone generation, becomes
(21:25):
unnecessary for the next, and soit's talking about church
attendance and it's talkingabout church involvement, and
it's saying that if parents aremaking church optional or
they're not establishing theimportance of being involved in
the local church, then there's astrong chance that the kids who
(21:48):
follow them will consider itunnecessary altogether.
And listen, that might nothappen right away, but I think
that if you pay attention enough, you see that that if churches
is something you casuallyparticipate in, as your kids get
older, they tend to go lessthan you did.
(22:09):
And then it kind of goes downthe line generation, generation,
and all of a sudden you have anentire generation that doesn't
go to church at all, and and Ithink we're seeing that
culturally.
You know, we, we had an entiregeneration who, you know, felt
the church was important andthen it kind of shifted.
It was kind of important andthen it was like well, it's not
really that important.
(22:30):
And then it's like, well, nowit's not important at all, and
now no one goes right, and sowe've kind of seen this work, so
, so it's not really thatimportant.
And then it's like, well, nowit's not important at all, and
now no one goes Right, and sowe've kind of seen this work.
So it's our responsibility asparents to raise our kids to go
to church, to love the church,to be part of the church, to see
the church through the lens ofJesus and all of its brokenness
(22:51):
and all of the craziness and allof the hurt that sometimes
comes with it.
And listen, I'm not, pleaseunderstand, I'm not undermining
church hurt at all, becausethat's a whole other
conversation for another day.
But still we have to learn toembrace and love the church in
the way that Jesus has called usto love the church, because
(23:13):
Jesus loves the church, in theway that Jesus has called us to
love the church, because Jesusloves the church.
Paul talks about this inEphesians, chapter 6, and he's
using husband and wife analogy,right.
He talks about how a wifeshould submit to her husband,
and then he says that thehusband should love his wife in
the same way that Christ lovesthe church Because Jesus loves
the church.
Jesus loves the local.
(23:34):
Jesus loves the local church.
He established it.
He says this to Peter you knowyou're a rock and on this rock
I'm going to build my church.
Jesus understands and he lovesthe local church so much so that
he was willing to die for it.
Now understand when we'retalking about church, I'm
(23:55):
talking about the people, thepeople that come together, not
the building, not a location andI know we have those.
But the local church is thelocal community of people who
are believers and followers ofChrist.
Jesus loved them enough to diefor them.
He loved the local church.
He loved the local church.
He loved the universal church,all of the work and all of the
(24:18):
nations that were going to cometo know him someday, but he
loves the church.
So that's, if we're healthy inour view of church, we should
love the church.
We should be engaged with thechurch and listen.
You spend time with those youlove.
(24:38):
You build up those you love.
You take care of those you love, you pray for those you love.
So, whatever your situation ismaybe you're part of a
congregation that meetsregularly on a Sunday morning,
(24:58):
maybe you're part of a housechurch.
Listen, maybe you're just partof a Bible study that gets
together once a week.
But whatever your context ofchurch is, wherever that
collective group of people cometogether to worship the God who
created them, I just want toencourage you to love that group
(25:19):
, love your local church, getinvolved, serve, give.
All of these things matterBecause the local church, that's
the plan, that was always theplan.
(25:41):
When Jesus tells them at the endof Matthew to go and make
disciples, baptizing them in thename of the Father, son and the
Holy Spirit and teaching themto obey all that, I command you.
He's telling them to go intothe world and create these
communities, just like I've donefor you, and take that
knowledge and go into the worldand replicate that again and
(26:02):
again.
And so the early church.
You saw a lot of house churchesthat sprung up out of that.
You saw them meeting in thesynagogue on a regular basis and
it's kind of, you know,multiplied into what it is today
.
But that's all because thosepeople love the church, they
love the mission of the churchso much that they actively
participated in taking themessage of the gospel to the
(26:26):
ends of the earth.
Can you imagine if Paul orPeter just decided to stay where
they were and never went anyfarther.
Can you imagine if they didn'treally love the mission of the
church that much and they juststopped sharing the gospel?
You and I would have none ofthis.
(26:48):
And so church is not somethingto belong to, it's not a
membership, it's not a clubmentality.
Church is something that we do.
The local church needs peoplewho love it, need people who
serve in it, need people whogive to it and listen.
(27:11):
That means everybody.
If you are part of a churchservice giving, spreading the
message of the gospel,discipling, spending time with
other believers those arenon-optional things.
That is what we are supposed todo.
That is what will change thechurches in your neighborhood.
(27:33):
By the way, that kind of churchis what's going to change your
community.
A church that not onlyunderstands that it needs each
other but it teaches thosearound them that they need Jesus
too.
Like a church that loves itselfbut also loves its community,
that can transform an entirecity.
(27:53):
I can prove that Biblically.
That happened a lot.
Entire cultures shifted becauseof the local church, and those
who were members and those whowere involved in the spreading
of the gospel Love your church.
(28:18):
Love the church that you'repart of, whatever that looks
like for you.
Love it and then teach yourfamily to do the same.
That that's what's going tochange the current culture.
(28:44):
That is what's going to changethe current churches in this
country.
Jesus loved the church, soshould we.
All right, you guys have a goodday.
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