I love the following excerpt by Owen Strachan about the church. Quoted on www.9marks.org
But
what is the local church, then? Well, first and foremost, it’s a group
devoted to worshiping the living God according to his inerrant Word, the
Bible. It’s an outpost for weary people burdened by sin to meet God and
be transformed by him. The church building may not look exciting from
the outside, or it may be an aesthetic masterpiece. Whatever the
building looks like, though, I can assure you that the local church
truly is exciting, because when it’s devoted to God’s Word, it is the
body of Christ. It’s a tangible, visible sign that God is real and
working and moving in our world.
You could say it this way: the church is created by the gospel, and the church is edified by
the gospel. God loves the local church. He made it, after all. It’s his
brainstorm. God is super-creative. He’s the ultimate aesthete. He loves
beauty and full-orbed, surround-sound faith. He wants all our senses
and emotions to be engaged in weekly worship. So we pray, sing, hear the
Word read and preached, eat the bread and drink the wine, and share
fellowship together.
The Lord wants these
blessings for us. We experience them when we join local churches (see 1
Cor. 5 and its discussion of those “outside” and “inside” the Corinthian
congregation). What’s called “church membership” is very important in
Scripture. Our redeemer wants every born-again Christian to be in
fellowship with others so we can build one another up in the faith. He
wants us to be baptized as our public declaration that we’ve passed
through the waters of judgment and have risen from spiritual death
through Christ. He wants us to partake of the Lord’s Supper to remember
Jesus’ death on our behalf.
I didn’t grow up in a
massive congregation. I grew up in a small church on the coast of
Maine. There weren’t many believers around. But I was trained to see the
church as an inherently dignified gathering regardless of how many
people attended on Sunday. My father was steadfastly committed to the
First Baptist Church of East Machias. He went every week to prayer
meeting; he and my mother were faithful to the church even through
troubled times. They modeled covenantal commitment to their church. I am
grateful they did.
It made a mark on me.
Church
was a natural part of my youth; without really knowing it, I was formed
in the worldview we’re discussing here. I was being trained in the holy
rhythms of a Godward life. I heard the preaching; ate the tiny little
communion crackers barely visible to the human eye; sang in the
Christmas choir. We weren’t a large body, but we were devoted to the
Lord.
More important, he was devoted to us.
He
is devoted to every church, to every local expression of the global
people of Christ, however humble, however popular. So should we be.
Owen
Strachan is Assistant Professor of Christian Theology and Church
History at Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky and the Executive
Director of the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood.
