WHY CHURCH?

In order to be relevant and attract more people, one church put up this ad. “Has the heaviness of your old fashioned church got you weighed down? Try us! We are the New and Improved Lite Church of the Valley. Studies have shown we have 24% fewer commitments than other churches. We guarantee to trim off guilt. We are the home of the 7.5% tithes. We promise 35 minute worship services, with 7 minute sermons. We have only 6 Commandments-- Your choice!! We use just 3 gospels in our contemporary New Testament *Good Sound Bites for Modern Human Beings*. We take the offering every other week, all major credit cards accepted, of course. Yes, the New and Improved Lite Church of the Valley could be just what you are looking for. We are everything you want in a church... and less!!

Unfortunately, inspite of all these efforts to attract people to church the recent surveys show a gradual decline of church attendance in the US. According to The national opinion research center 38%, The institute for social research shows 44%, The Barna research reports: In 1991, 49%(attended church) after 13 years in 2004, 43%. Another group puts America in 11th place when it comes to Church attendance with 44%. Nigeria tops the list with 89%. What is keeping so many people away from Church? If you ask some one who doesn’t go to church why? he/she may give the following reasons are: 1. Church is old fashioned and boring 2. Churchgoers are a bunch of hypocrites, 3. All they want is my money 4. I am too tired to go to church 5. I am too busy I have no time to waste.

These reasons may be valid. But should that stop you from attending the church? If there is any problem I believe it is not the problem with the church but it is with certain people in the church. I would like to highlight five reasons why you should get excited to become a member of the church and encourage others to come to church where they can experience God.
1. The Church will endure forever. 2The Church is a witnessing community 3.The Church is the body of Christ, 4. The church is God's family 5. The Church is a loving community. In Greek (ecclesia) church has a range of meanings: legal assembly, congregation, a meeting place for a group of Christians living in one place, the universal church to which all believers belong.

I. THE CHURCH WILL ENDURE FOREVER
Jesus said to Peter in Matt 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Before Christ returned to heaven he commanded his disciples saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them….and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:18-20). After fifty days, on the day of Pentecost we see the birth of the church, God sent the Holy Spirit on a multi-cultural, multi lingual gathering of believers in Jerusalem. Peter preached passionately 3000 people were saved and added to the church. Subsequently God kept adding numbers to the church on a daily basis.

Over the centuries many Emperors, Kings, Governors have tried to destroy the Church of God. But no one has succeeded so far and no one will, because God’s church will endure forever John Stott, a well known British Evangelical Leader who was listed in Time magazine among the 100 most influential people in the world has this to say about the Church: “The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. The church is God’s new community. For His purpose, conceived in a past eternity, being worked out in history, and to be perfected in a future eternity.” In other words Church has always been in the mind of God, it was not an after thought. The Church will remain forever throughout eternity. When you become a member of the Church you are becoming a part of that eternal Church of God.

II. THE CHURCH IS A WITNESSING COMMUNITY
A witness is a person who gives testimony for or against someone often in a law-court setting, where there is considerable concern for the truth of the testimony. In Greek we also get the meaning of a “Martyr” Jesus appeared to his disciples after he rose from the dead and said “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends o f the earth.”

The early apostles and other believers in Christ were a witnessing community. They boldly proclaimed what they had seen and heard from Christ to the rest of the world. Similarly today the believers are called to speak out boldly what God has done in their lives. That is the heart of God. We should not keep this good news to ourselves, but make all efforts possible to communicate the love of God to the people in our communities.

III. THE CHURCH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST
The major theme of the book of Ephesians is that the Church is the body of Christ. Paul uses the analogy of the body to describe how we all will fit together. We find a lot of similarities between the physical body and the body of Christ. I Corinthians 12:12 “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; they form one body. 1 Corinthians 12:27, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” These scriptures highlight that regardless of our cultural, ethnic, economic, and educational background we all are the members of the body of Christ. We need to recognize the fact that though we all are different, we need each other. We all are interconnected with each other in Christ. The church is the body of Christ and Jesus is the head of the Church.

As cohesion, cooperation and unity is essential for the functioning of our physical body the same applies to the body of Christ as well. We can not afford to say to another member of the church I don’t need you because you are different. Paul warns the Corinthians against this attitude, “But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; or again the head to the feet; I have no need of you. He goes on to explain there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored all the members rejoice with it.” (I Cor 12: 20-26).

IV. THE CHURCH IS GOD’S FAMILY
Paul calls the church God's household. The church is God's family made up of all those who have become his children through faith in Christ. Just like we can't choose our siblings in our families of birth, neither can we choose our brothers and sisters in the church. Selfish interests and spiritual darkness marked our lives before we were saved. But now that we have come into the light we are to mature, which includes a whole other way of relating than we may have been used to growing up in our families of birth.
In the church family there is no place for attitudes like: "Oh this guy has offended me I am not talking to him any more” or I just don't like so and so. Neither can we afford gossip in the disguise of: "Between you and me, don't let so and so be involved he has 'holier than thou attitudes'. When we talk like that we become breakers of God's family instead of builders, we destroy the unity of the spirit. Another aspect of God's family is that it is big and beautifully diverse. In his book the church is bigger than you think; Patrick Johnston explains how the church has been growing world wide.

My wife and I were missionaries with YWAM; YWAM has volunteers working from over100 countries. We saw the multi faceted splendor of God in the commitment and the diligence of Asians, the exuberance of Brazilians, the celebration of laughter of the Islanders, the leadership and innovation of the North Americans, the hospitality and mercy heart of the Dutch, the dignity of Africans, the adventurous Australians and the politeness of the British and so on. That is the big picture of God's colorful and diverse family. How wonderful and magnificent heaven would be when people from all languages, tribes and cultures come together to celebrate their salvation and worship Jesus. I am glad that belong to that wonder family of God. How about you? Do you belong to God's big family?

Our local congregation resembles in a small way that great BIG family of God. We come from various backgrounds yet we realize that we all are one in Christ and we all belong to the same BIG family of God.

V. THE CHURCH IS A LOVING COMMUNITY

Jesus said to his disciples” if you love me you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15). Answering the expert in the law Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest command and the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Why do you think there is so much emphasis on love in the New Testament? As you start reading the NT you will discover love as the reoccurring theme for those who have been saved. It is because God is love, and who are the objects of his love? You got it right, it is people! God loves people, God is passionate about people! He has created people with a need to be loved. The heart of the Gospel is that Christ came and showed his love by laying down his life for a lost mankind hurting for love.
Love has to be fleshed out in the church, what I mean with that is that we become attentive to the needs, cares and sensitivities of others. Through your love, kindness, generosity, thoughtful and selfless actions you make the love of God clear to others that is what the Bible calls building others up. The more we learn to love in God's family the more lives will be healed and restored. God has designed the church to be a place of love. No one has ever seen God it says in John 4:12 “but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” In John 13:34 we read “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Loving one another is not a good suggestion neither it is optional but it is a command from God.

Whatever may be the reasons why people don’t attend churches and do not want to become members, we have good enough reasons why we must belong to a church: The church will last forever, the church is a witnessing community, the church is the body of Christ, the church is God’s family, and the church is a loving community. What a privelege for us to belong to God's family and his loving community.