Ordinary Eve
Why go to Church?
What is the first thing that comes into your head when someone says ‘Church’ to you? A medieval building with bells? A bunch of old fogies and an organ? A throng of infuriatingly cheerful, happy-clappy folk? None of them is really right, and none of them is necessarily wrong, by which we mean "bad".
When we become a Christian we immediately become part of The Church i.e. the worldwide community of Christians. It’s not about which one you attend – it’s a spiritual connection. The word comes from the Greek kЎriakon which means ‘belonging to the Lord’. The word has come to stand for a building or place but that's not the origin.
You are the Church
When Peter (one of the twelve disciples) declared that Jesus was “the Christ, the son of the living God” Jesus responded “on this rock (Peter) I will build my church” (Matthew 16 v16-19). I find it interesting that it was straight after this declaration of Jesus’ divinity and Lordship that He should say this to Peter – this is the crunch point. When any of us, following in Peter’s footsteps, makes that declaration of faith in Christ, He starts to build His Church upon it. This is all a bit theological and not apparently anything to do with singing hymns and lighting candles but it is really exciting when we grasp it. We are automatically The Church as soon as we give our lives to Christ. Christ is building on us as individuals and, therefore, even if you and the person sitting next to you were the only Christians on the planet you would still be The Church.
Why go to church?
But of course Church is about more than just the individual. The Church is the people of God – Christ’s body – of which he is the Head. A body has many parts and it cannot work properly without all those parts. Paul describes the Church as a living organism – when one part hurts it affects the rest. God knows that we need to be in relationships with other people and that we cannot grow when we are on our own. That’s why we need to be part a church community.
Plus, it's difficult to be a Christian on your own. Who can you ask about the doubts and questions that pop into your mind? How do you learn more about God - the Bible is a pretty huge book and there is a lot of difficult stuff in it, where will you go to find out more? How can you get encouragement when you are finding it difficult to deal with the day-to-day business of being a Christian?
You need help - we all do and that's what Church can provide.
What is it supposed to be like?
The Bible doesn’t use the word ‘church’ very much surprisingly; the authors tend to talk about believers meeting together, usually at each others houses and sometimes in the temple courts. From the time of Pentecost onwards ‘church’ was characterised by teaching, prayer, praise, fellowship, celebrating communion, eating together and looking after those in need (Acts 2 vv 42-47). Sounds good doesn’t it? If all churches were like that we would probably need to build bigger buildings!
Shopping for a church
Check out the links on the right hand side, but also go round your local area. There is nothing wrong with visiting a few churches or maybe even the same church a few times until you find one you are comfortable with. Perhaps try different times of day - just to see if the character of the service suits you. And relax, let God guide you and you'll find somewhere you can belong.
