Sometimes you choose to do a series. Sometimes a series chooses you! Following on Choosing A Mate and Choosing Your Friends, today we are discussing what we should look for in a local church. Since this is “drop off day” for Austin Peay students, I thought it would be a good time for all of us to consider with what group of Christians we will worship and work with as we serve Jesus Christ our Lord.
You may notice I did not call this article Choosing A Church. I began writing with the intention of using the word church. But I am afraid so many people take a denominational view of the phrase “the church” it blurs what I want to examine here. Imagine you are heading to college or a new job in a different city. What you will be deciding is, “Which of these local congregations teaches the truth on essential issues, displays the Spirit of Christ, and fits best with where I live and work.”
My personal conviction is there are three doctrines which narrow a search for a congregation:
1. Immersion of believers in Christ Jesus as Lord and resurrected Son of God.
2. Offering of the Lord’s supper on each first day of the week.
3. Congregational singing in worship without the playing of instruments.
There are a myriad of things which make a congregation suitable or not.
But that list will put you in the ballpark pretty quickly. Does that mean all churches who do those three things are “true churches of Christ?” Absolutely not! In Revelation chapters two and three, Jesus threatens to remove the candlestick of a congregation who had, “abandoned the love you had at first.” Our Lord demanded repentance from sexual immorality, false doctrine, works without living faith, and lukewarm complacence brought on by earthly wealth.
The rule with which we should measure any congregation is the word of God. The authority given to Jesus and then to the apostles to make disciples, teach, reprove, correct, and train Christians (Matthew 28:18-19; II Timothy 3:16) reaches down through time to us in the words of the inspired Scriptures. The New Testament must have authority in any local church claiming to be part of the body of Christ.
When choosing a group of Christians to join as servants of Jesus, we must ask the question, “Are they following the Bible in making all decisions regarding the faith, worship, and practice of the church?” If the answer is “No!” the question becomes, “Who is in charge here?” “From where do they get the gospel of Jesus the Christ which must be preached?” “How do they know they are walking in the light?” A congregation that does not submit to the word of God does not have Jesus on the throne. Their god is not the God of heaven but their own appetites and earthly desires. We are warned not to associate with worldly people even if the sign outside says, “Church of Christ.”
“watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites,”-Romans 16:17-18
“For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”-II Timothy 3:2-5
In the final analysis, a local congregation becomes a true church of God when followers of Christ honestly seek to study, know, and teach the Bible (Ezra 7:10). They don’t add to or take away from it. We strive to be a church like the one found in the New Testament. May God bless us as we strive to do his will. We hope you will join us as we praise the God who loves us, the Son who gave himself for us, and are strengthened and renewed by the Spirit sent into our hearts by our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
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