One Sunday. It’s not like I was gone for weeks, and yet I sorely missed not being able to join my family as they left me at home sick that Sunday morning. Perhaps that’s strange to you, or maybe it seems a bit extreme to experience sadness from missing church just one time. The body of Christ isn’t an added extra for me though; it’s not another club I’m part of that gives me something to do or keeps me entertained for a few hours on Sunday. I need to go to church. I have an ache inside for the presence of God, the radiance of the saints, the authority of the gospel. I don’t go to church out of inertia or custom. I go because I need God, you, song, prayer, gospel, freedom from self, and more. As I think about the beauty of the body of Christ and what she means to me, here are six things I want to encourage you to look for in a church.
1. Gospel-soaked Prayer
When Karyn and I first took our family to check out our current church, something that captured me immediately was the congregational prayer. I don’t remember who spoke the words, but I remember feeling my mind called to attention and my heart filled with thanks as I was reminded of the gracious God and all that he has done. The theological depth of this carefully crafted prayer reflected the heart of the church to lovingly, deliberately invest good doctrine into those who listened. The prayer included a clear articulation of sin and our need to repent, Jesus as our only hope and redeemer, the obedience of faith as our response, and our mutual commitment to the pursuit of holiness as the body of Christ. Prayers like this consistently came from every person who shared a role in the liturgy; the gospel-soaked vocabulary of prayers rooted in the good news of Jesus Christ. Notably absent from these prayers were me-focused subjective declarations; these prayers pointed people with precision to the beauty of God in the gospel.
2. Christ-exalting Worship
We all know that music can stay with us long after the words of the sermon are over. Songs have a habit of popping into your head whenever they please, and we are influenced by what we sing. As a parent with kids in the service, I feel an extra responsibility to pay close attention to what is sung as well as what is said. This is a service to my own spiritual well-being as well because we are all called to worship God with our minds. With my ears up during worship, listening to what we are learning through song, I find with delight that every song minimised human-centric language making much of Christ and his infinite worth. I still remember songs I sung in church growing up, and I’m grateful for the good theology instilled in me from a young age. Rather than “we have overcome”, make sure your church is singing “Who is like the Lord our God?” because when we sing songs that are deeply rooted in Scripture, we sing to exalt Christ—an act in which the Holy Spirit is eager to join with us.
3. Scripture-driven Sermons
No one would disagree that a lead Pastor’s main role is the faithful proclamation of the Word of God to the people under his care. Further, part of this responsibility is discerning the needs of his congregation, by answering the questions that are burning in their hearts. For this reason, I don’t assert that topical sermons are wrong-headed, but perhaps (like me) you’ve sat under topical sermons that are helpful in doing life better, but you realise you’re at the end of the sermon and your Bible is still sitting closed on your lap. I would simply seek to encourage those who adopt this style (when they feel the need arise) to work equally hard on these sermons as their regular exegetical walk through books of the Bible. The danger lies in approaching the Biblical text with an idea or a theme and reading that topic into the text before plucking that verse out of its context and attempting to extract three points of application for the hearers. It’s too common for pastors to either (a) serve their congregation pre-packaged content prepared by someone else or (b) sever parts of Scripture from their Biblical-historical context for a need that it was never intended to address. The former can be the theological equivalent of serving your children take-away food five nights in a row, the latter short-changes people in their growth and simply won’t develop mature disciples.
4. Family-minded Community
The church is called, gathered, and held together in fellowship by the unifying presence of the Holy Spirit. For this reason we should place a high value on church membership because we know that it is primarily for the benefit of other church members that we have been given various gifts. It’s the people in the church community with whom we have been adopted and made into one loving family. John writes
Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us,
that we would be called children of God (1 John 3:1)
The church should never be thought of as purely a gathering of like-minded people who then disperse back to their lives without much outside contact with those they warmly shook hands with on Sunday. Be part of a church that embraces the messy, noisy mix of chaos and love that family is, and that in every way communicates the importance of commitment to a local body of believers as a vital step of obedience in the Christian life.
5. God-pursuing Leadership
When it comes to making decisions, there are churches that adhere to wise business principles, and then there are those who adhere to a faithful application of the principles of Scripture. These two sets of values are not always at odds with each other (in fact, quite often they can align) but the primacy and ultimate authority of Scripture alone must prevail when tough decisions need to be made. Too often damage has been done to whole groups of people when church boards make “the better business decision” in the face of clear (counter-cultural) gospel imperatives. The qualities of God-pursuing leadership are outlined for us in two places in the New Testament (in addition to qualities that mark Christians in general), and as such no church member should ever feel uncomfortable about approaching leaders—Bible in hand—about decisions that have been tabled for comment, and leaders should always be able to provide answers consistent with the gospel for decisions, and not simply a good business case.
6. Intentional Discipleship
It’s one thing to take time before, during, and after the Sunday service to chat about our week and the weather. But no one has ever become a more mature disciple of Christ without intentionally coming together with other believers and carving out time to work out our salvation. We need each other; we see in our very design as image-bearers of God that we are deeply designed for community. When we join with other believers to search Scripture for answers to our circumstances, confess and root out sin, and in prayer seek the ongoing help of the Holy Spirit in our sanctification, we truly grow in grace and bring glory to God as those who better reflect him on earth. A church that promotes deep, personal relationships as well as offers classes and groups for the deeper exploration in and application of God’s living Word in our lives is a church that is fulfilling the Great Commission to
19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
(Matthew 28:19–20a, ESV)
This is why I love the church.
Recent years continue to see Christians abandon the institutional church in favor of expressions of the faith that are supposedly more ‘pure’. Christians meeting together at McDonald’s in twos or threes, Christians meeting together in homes or in local parks. This, say some, is a true, pure, biblical expression of Christian community. But I love the historical, institutional church, and believe that she is central to all that God is doing in the world. My prayer is that every Christian would find for themselves a place in which each of these Six Things (and more) is preached, practiced, and promoted for their good and God’s glory.
