Three Reasons We Need One Another
The elders are discussing a document entitled “Portrait of a Maturing Disciple.” It attempts to lay out in a systematic way what the trajectory looks like for a Christ-follower who is fully committed to Jesus and growing in all aspects of his or her life:
· …in what he knows, the body of gospel truth that shapes his perspective, how he learns to preach the gospel to himself as a regular practice
· …in how she grows, the personal and corporate spiritual disciplines that create the space and depth for sustainable spiritual growth
· …and in how he goes in service to other believers and to his non-Christian friends and neighbors.
Dean Bouzeos and I are team-teaching a Sunday morning class based on that document. This week, we’re considering what it means to belong to a local body, a local fellowship of Christ-followers.
Here’s how we state it in our “Portrait of a Maturing Disciple.”
Because I understand that trusting Christ means I am part of his family, I have committed myself to my local body of believers by participating in my fellowship.
1. Corporate worship:
a. I faithfully attend worship services where I can hear God’s Word and celebrate the goodness of God with the people of God.
b. I have made a public declaration of my faith by following Christ in baptism, as he commanded.
c. I observe the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis with my brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. I have committed myself to my local body of believers by becoming a member of my fellowship.
3. I understand how God has gifted and equipped me for service, and I am cultivating and deploying those gifts in service to other believers.
4. I faithfully support the ministries of the body not just with my ministry activity but also with my finances.
5. I am taking advantage of opportunities for spiritual growth with other believers in a smaller learning environment (class, small group, etc.)
There’s a lot to unpack here, of course, but the point is simple enough: being a maturing disciple is being part of a family. The notion of the solitary individual Christian braving the world alone, disconnected from other believers, is unbiblical. Actually, the idea of a solitary Christ-follower is dangerous, however much it may appeal to our own vanity and our American ideals of independence.
What does it mean to belong to local fellowship? In our “Portrait” we have identified two main categories under the category of “corporate worship”:
· regularly gathering with the people of God to celebrate the goodness of God
· obeying Christ’s commands for his people:
o Baptism
o Lord’s Supper (or Communion)
These are the regular rhythms of the gathered body of Christ. These are the things we set aside time to do together on a regular basis.
So what does it mean if I neglect these vital connections with the body of Christ?
I remember hearing a friend of mine describe what it was like to live apart from Christian fellowship. He and his wife and small child were working in a country where Christians are a persecuted minority. They didn’t have a local body of believers to fellowship with, so it was just the three of them – Mom, Dad, and their toddler daughter. They took a break from ministry tasks on Sundays, and they rested. But they couldn’t gather with the people of God to celebrate the goodness of God.
I remember thinking at the time, as I listened to him describe what a churchless life was like for his family, “This is not sustainable.” I knew that even though this man and his wife clearly loved Jesus, they would not be able to sustain a vigorous faith life apart from the mutual support and encouragement of a local body of believers. As much as they loved Jesus and loved one another, they needed more interaction with other believers than they could find on their own.
So what does it mean when a Christ-follower doesn’t maintain a good connection with a local body of believers? There are several answers to that question, several reasons a believer might be inclined to neglect the vital spiritual discipline of assembling with the people of God:
1. It might mean that he misunderstands the corporate nature of being a Christian. Following Jesus isn’t just a transaction, it isn’t just exchanging my sin for his righteousness. It is that, but it is also more: when I trust Christ, I am adopted in the family of God. Now that I belong to Jesus, I have spiritual siblings with whom I share a vital kinship. I need my brothers and sisters in Christ, and they need me.
Why do we need one another? We need one another for encouragement. Someone once said that our main responsibility to other Christians to help them keep trusting God.
We also need one another for correction. We all have blind spots, and we all need someone to help us see them. A man whose pants are unzipped is in need of a friend.
2. It might mean she doesn’t see the point in gathering with the people of God in order to celebrate the goodness of God. Gathering with the people of God means that I am setting aside time from my week to be with assembled congregation, celebrating with them what God has given us all in Christ.
Sure, I can enjoy the goodness of God on a walk alone in the woods. And sure, I can tune into the livestream to hear the music and the preaching. But these exceptions must never become habit patterns. This notion of the solitary worshiper – alone in the woods, alone on the couch at home listening to the music and sermon – this is alien to centuries of both Jewish and Christian thought and practice. Worshiping alone was never, ever God’s intention for His people.
3. It almost certainly means that he is being disobedient to Christ. When Jesus told his apostles to make disciples, he told them to teach those disciples to obey all the things he had commanded. The two ordinances he left for his people are both corporate practices: we must be together to carry out his instructions to baptize and to remember his death in Communion.
There are some things you just cannot do alone, by yourself. If I want to obey Jesus, I must gather with the people of God to obey these two commands of Christ; I can no more practice the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper alone than I can play football alone.
All of this to say that there is a much stronger argument for the regular pattern of weekly worship than just the momentum of habit and custom. There is something powerful and necessary about our gathering together regularly, something that is vital to our individual and corporate well-being, something we dare not neglect.
For many of us, the pandemic has robbed us of the opportunity to be with the people of God. Now that we are coming out of our months-long hibernation, it is vital that we reestablish the habit of corporate worship.
We need to be together.
We need to be with our spiritual siblings, to celebrate together the goodness of our Father.
Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Discipleship Weekly
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