Modern March | a Christian blog

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 07:52 AM PDT

I was reminded while teaching the youth recently that the local church is flat out irreplaceable. God does amazing things in the lives of people through the church that would possibly never occur anywhere else. I’ll be honest, I have had my back and forth opinions on the church’s level of significance in our culture. As I have mentioned before, a Barna Group study predicts that by 2025, Christians who get their main source of "God time" from their local church will drop from 70% (currently) to 30-35%. That other 35-40% will mainly receive the Gospel from other outlets such as podcasts, books, Internet services, etc.

Although I think that this may have a lot of truth to it, I don’t believe churches will be as effected as these percentages suggest. For anyone who truly considers the Bible to be authoritative, I think you would be out of your mind to replace the church with anything. In Matthew 16, Jesus promises that He willl build His church, and you better believe that He will. Simply put, the Church and the local church are the avenues through which Christ will transform the world.

In Acts, the church is considered more than just a place of worship; it is a gathering of people who represent Christ’s love and service in their community. This was reflecting powerfully on the culture around them and people were being saved daily literally by watching these people live their lives.

Acts 2:42-47 – They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

They are known for prayer, praising God, and for giving their last dime or selling their possessions to aid their neighbors. They were also constantly hanging out at one another’s houses (much like what we now call “home groups”), eating and enjoying their neighbors’ company. This is something that the church is supposed to do because these were churches following the structure set by Christ’s apostles, who followed Christ’s example.

This sense of unity in Christ is something that has been forgotten by a vast number of churches and has affected how the current generation views church. In many people’s eyes, it is just a building to hear sermons and sing. We need to get back to the basics of the role of the church and change these views.

It is perfectly okay to supplement church attendance with podcasts and books, but they should never take its place. For that matter, neither should coffee shops, lazer light shows, or any other form of attraction churches use to fill their pews. These things are not inherently evil, but let’s remember that the church impacted the world well before modern technology.

The local church was designed as a true community that is to be a beacon of light in the world around it. May that light never burn out.

Filed under: Church, Scripture Lessons