Beware of reducing ‘church’ to a slick sermon and singing along to your favorite on-line service. Church is much more than what transpires mentally or emotionally. The heart of church engages ALL of you; mind, body and spirit.
When you attend church (in-person), you experience spiritual formation at its fullest. We generally seem to accept that the Christian walk isn’t meant to be done alone…but we opt for doing church at our own convenience because it’s…convenient.
The problem is that church was never meant to be convenient. It was meant to have relational depth with our brothers and sisters that’s been built through struggles and shared victories. Like a family.
When we get saved, we get adopted by a Father. And in our adoption, we also join a family of brothers and sisters - ones that we don’t get to choose - but ones that have been rescued just like us.
Sunday mornings is a family gathering, where we sit at the table with the annoying brother and the loud-mouthed sister…and we look them in the eye and make the decision to love them despite their flaws (as we hope they will also love and accept us.)
Your deepest relationships are ones that you’ve persevered through. And the relationships you’ve persevered through are the ones that you call upon during times of struggle and temptation.
On Sundays, we sit and listen to the same word of God, together, at the same time and in the same place. And just like listening to a mother or father speak words of love or of exhortation at the dinner table, we receive it together. Some might cry, some might wince - but we notice what’s happening collectively.
Sundays are more than a biblical information dump by a gifted guy on a screen. They’re a time where a man with flesh and skin administers the word of God with the knowledge of what it’s like to live in our city. And as the body of christ, we listen and respond…together.
The church gathering is where your brother encourages you out of temptation. The gathering is where you hear the passionate worship of your tone-deaf sister in the seat next to you. The church is called the body for many reasons, but let’s not forget a basic one: a body is physical.
