Monday, October 29, 2007

Criticality of the Church

Since many of our readers are in fact Evangelists, that is people who go out and regularly preach the Gospel and train others to do the same, I thought I might touch on an important issue. It is the tendency of many who are regularly out there sharing their faith to become more knowledgeable about scripture, apologetics, culture, doctrine and theology. Many have a tendency in this area to become Schismatics.

I will first deal with the necessity of the Local Church. First among many of my friends I am far more insistent that the Local Church is crucial to our walk, growth, ministry, family and lives. I believe that many who witness regularly become Schismatics. They usually cannot conform to what a Pastor would tell them and then they break away and do things their own way. Do not get me wrong there are reasons to leave a church and I have done so when it was absolutely necessary. However the Local Church is so important. The Church can provide growth, fellowship, accountability, authority and wisdom to its members including those who like to preach the Gospel.

I also am aware that without a good church you can be miserable, so it is important to not only get plugged in, but get plugged in somewhere good. There are great Churches everywhere..... I know sometimes it seems tough but you can find the gems out there. www.9marks.org is a great site where you can find many churches that uphold to the Biblical Understanding of what Church is. Please note that it is not comprehensive by any means. There are other great churches out there who are not on 9 marks and for many of those you have to go and find them. Todd Friel posted a great little .pdf on how to find a good church document. Those are some great questions to ask again not comprehensive and some do not have to be answered an exact way but is a great guideline. Finally if it is not a major issue though, find somewhere you can grow, have fellowship and be submitted to...... then commit it to God through obedience. Personally I love our Church very much... be encouraged.

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