By: John MacArthur
From: Grace To You Blog
I love the church. It’s the center of my life and has been since childhood. My father was the pastor of a church when I was born, and I grew up in the church. It’s the place where I was led to the knowledge of God, where I learned about the Person and work of Christ, and where I gained the knowledge of saving and sanctifying truth. It’s where I learned how to pray, how to sing, how to worship, how to love, and how to serve. And it was in the church that I experienced the leading of the Spirit of God directing me to a life of ministry.
I met my wife in the church. We raised our children in the church, and now our grandchildren, too. It’s where I’ve made lifelong friends and partners in ministry. The church touches every part of my life—in fact you could say it is my life.
People sometimes ask me why I write so much about issues in the church—why I can’t just be quiet and enjoy my ministry. The answer is, I love the church so much that I can’t stand by and watch it struggle. I want to help it be all God wants it to be, and that means I need to be a pastor. I love the church too much to do anything else.
And frankly, I can’t understand people who don’t have a similar love for the church—who aren’t eager for every opportunity to worship together with other like-minded believers. I can’t understand people who go to church on Saturday nights so they don’t “mess up” their Sundays. Why are they so eager to get away from the church? Where else would they rather be?
There was a time when coming to Christ meant coming to His church. As far back as the New Testament, salvation brought you into union with the visible, gathered Body of Christ (cf. Acts 2:47). Becoming a Christian meant entering into fellowship with the people of God.
That’s changed. The contemporary emphasis in evangelicalism is a believer’s personal relationship to Christ. Individual faith is the pervasive theme, and rarely is there any discussion of how believers are supposed to fit into the church.
When was the last time you read a tract or heard a gospel presentation that ends with a discussion of the believer’s relationship to the church? At best there is a very low emphasis on church involvement, church membership, and being a part of the family of God in the visible, gathered household of saints.
And in the massive effort to make salvation personal, the church has been left behind and overlooked to the detriment of many souls. Too many people today tend to be ecclesiastical consumers. They’re only interested in what they can get out of their church, and they bounce from congregation to congregation as their whims and interests change. They don’t have any particular commitment or loyalty to a specific assembly of saints.
In fact, they have little to no attachment to the church at all, and are under no obligation for regular attendance—if they make it, they make it; if not, it’s no big deal.
For people like that, their faith is completely anchored in their personal relationships with Christ—there is no corporate commitment or responsibility to the people of God. Their Christianity exists completely outside and apart from the church.
But the idea of believers living independently of the church is totally foreign to the New Testament. The Holy Spirit addressed almost every epistle to a local church, and other books like 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon were addressed to key leaders in the church. Even the book of James—which was written to believers scattered by persecution—assumes the recipients are still meeting together and deals heavily with life in the context of the church.
Throughout the New Testament the assumption is always the same: that the people of God are faithfully gathering together in a local assembly where the Word of God is being disseminated. That unified gathering—not just the invisible worldwide church, but the local, visible congregation—is at the heart of Christianity. The church is the only institution the Lord established and promised to bless. Why would anyone who claims to love the Lord want to keep His people at arm’s length?
The widespread lack of commitment to the church shows up in many other ways as well—the rampant neglect of baptism and communion, the explosion of parachurch ministries, and the forsaking of the biblical qualifications for church leadership are just a few examples. We’ll deal with each of those issues later in our series on the local church.
For now, we’re going to focus on our responsibility to the church and the role each of us is called to play in our local congregations. It starts with the important step of submitting to your local church in membership, and that’s where we’ll pick up next week.
Truth in Palmyra 
August 30, 2015 at 06:22
Great Wally. Keep preaching about the importance of church.
God bless
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August 30, 2015 at 07:06
Thanks James, I plan on it! Today is going to be a good one. 5th Sunday, so we will be there most all day. Prayer meeting, Sunday School, Worship Service, Fellowship, then some singing and more preaching. Can’t beat that!
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August 30, 2015 at 06:57
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
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August 30, 2015 at 08:56
Thanks and good morning Brother Vincent. Big day planned today?
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August 30, 2015 at 10:56
You’re welcome Brother Wally! Worship then visiting with family.
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August 30, 2015 at 07:28
I love John Macarthur, his work has helped me so much during my journey with Christ, especially when it came to my identity as a wife and mother. I agree with him. I know there is a lot of controversy when it comes to “church” and what that means, but the fact of the matter is it’s important for our spirituality. I also love something he said which I have been thinking about for quite some time, which many evangelicals have bashed me for. They claim Catholics don’t have a “personal” relationship with Jesus. I never really understood like John MacArthur this “personal” relationship with Christ, individualistic theory, like Jesus and I are BFF and I don’t need anything anyone or anything else. This salvation is personal stuff always disturbed me and sounded to me like a marketing ploy rather than a call to God. I can’t knock altar calls because well, I responded to one, so I believe God will use whatever we need to get us there. But the church has been forsaken at the expense of our thought that it’s all about us, when really it’s all about Him. It’s like we’ve adapted the world’s theory of salvation instead of Jesus’s theory. It’s not about the church is just a building, it’s about the spirituality and the unity one experiences in communion with his saints on earth, praising and worshiping together. One can knock the institution of the Catholic church all they want and I get that completely, but the core of the church, the heart of the church is unity in Christ, and this for me is especially poignant in our weekly recitation of the Creed. For some reason this seems to be the high point of the mass for me, as I hear hundreds of other believers declare their faith, unity and love for Christ. It means something to me. It’s rooted in such love and makes my spirit sing, knowing I am connected to so many other believers who believe the same thing I do.
John MacArthur and I may not have the same theology but I love him, respect his teaching and at the core of it for me, he says it likes it, and I appreciate that. So much to think about today.
If we don’t get our churches back in order who will?
When are we going to stop selling Christ, thinking of various marketing ploys to get people in?
It is about relationship, contentedness, togetherness. See we are having church right now!
Still pondering….
M
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August 30, 2015 at 07:46
Wow! Lot of stuff there Melissa. Glad I could be a part of your thinking so much. Just curious, what did He say about the personal relationship thing? I must have missed it.
Ok. Catholic bashing, I don’t do it. But, I try not to too badly bash anybody. People ask me. can a Catholic be saved? Well, duh, of course. Our denomination does not save us, but the way we consider grace and the atoning work of Jesus and it’s sufficiency does. Unfortunately, the grim truth is many Catholics, have either been taught some bad stuff, or has misunderstood what they have been taught. But, that’s true anywhere. It’s true right in my own Baptist Church, where the very person bashing a Catholic is convinced that his own membership in church, Baptism, and taking of the Lord’s Supper has saved him. Sadly, he has overlooked the whole repentance and faith thing. Enough said there.
Altar calls rock, but I am partial because as you said, I responded to one. Can altar calls be nothing more than an emotional response to a moment of conviction and empty of any actual repentance and faith? You bet. I venture more than we suspect are exactly that. I still like them though, because even if what happens is less than real, it is still an opportunity to draw them.
Personal relationship with Jesus…that’s kind of like “let Jesus into your heart.” Sounds sweet, but it’s rather empty, isn’t it? I mean, I have a personal relationship with Him for sure, but it’s not based on the fact that I allowed Him into my heart blah blah. It’s based on my repentance for my sin and faith in his payment for it and so on. It’s based on my surrender to Him and His Lordship on my life.
Church. Well, you know how I feel about all that! I am so much the local, called out assembly of believers guy. Always will be. It’s vital, and it matters. Has she lost sight of herself and why Jesus called her on the shores of Galilee? In many cases, yes. Does that mean we bail out? Nope. It means we strive to get it back to what it was.
Interesting point about this being church. “Local” may very well have a shifting definition as the internet has kind of altered what local means huh? Me in Arkansas, you in Florida, yet only nanoseconds from each other. Hard for a upper middle aged guy to absorb to tell the truth.
Peace sister, and thanks for your great comment.
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August 30, 2015 at 17:09
Reblogged this on Redbird's Roost.
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September 16, 2015 at 09:59
I agree, People have become consumers within the church…consuming that which the church offers – worship, message, community – which is good really. The problem is the critical attitudes about that which they are consuming. My husband was a worship leader for some time within the church that we attended and there was certainly no shortage of opinions on what should be played and how it should be presented. Attendees have come to believe that the worship is about them and how it inspires them, not about God and how it shows our reverence, obedience, gratitude and love. Our world has become all about how our surroundings entertain us, and in response the church is following in kind. Yes, it can have the ability to reach those who would not otherwise be reached in another type of setting, but I believe that as we mature….become adults in the faith, not children anymore…those needs should wane in favor of a much more grounded and centering truth. This is the challenge of today’s churches – to attract, inspire, encourage, teach and grow responsible and loving Christ followers…not just Christians. Thank you for your faithful light upon the road for others to follow brother!!
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September 16, 2015 at 10:18
Lisa thank you for that fine comment and for reading!
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