There are a few different meaning when you say the word church. “Hey, mom, where is dad? Oh, I remember. He’s at church again…” That would be the church building. “Bob, I’m going to church this morning. Would you like to come?” That would describe the (normally) Sunday morning worship service. “What church do I belong to? Sure, I’m a member of Star of Bethlehem Lutheran Church.” That’s the group of God’s people who are gathered together in Jesus name to do his work.
Why should I join a church? I can worship God in my own house in my own way on my own time. True, but our God encourages us in Hebrews 10 to not give up meeting together. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is that the gospel is meant to be shared among and through the family of believers. The second touches on the essence of what the church is. God says in the Gospel of Matthew that where ever two or three are gathered in his name, there he is with them. When we gather together in worship or any purpose that has to do with gospel ministry, Jesus shows up. The third reason has to do with metal working, sort of… Proverbs tells us that as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. We grow as Christians when are surrounded by Christians. We rebuke, encourage, and teach each other. In that process we are not beaten and broken down, rather, we are built up into the body of Christ. Finally, we gather as Christians because we can accomplish far more together than we can apart. Think of world missions or worker training schools! We are so blessed to be a part of the WELS. This group of 1200 churches works together to take on world wide mission work and training of the next generation of called workers.
Want to learn more about the goals of the Christian church? Watch this weeks sermon taken from Luke 11.
Topic(s): MinistryBook(s): Luke
Series: Ref500
Tag(s): God's Word
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg