June 2026

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:19-25 NIV).

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:11-16 NIV).

The Bible makes it clear that, as believers, we are called to assemble together; we are called to a life of community and fellowship.  Basically, the Bible tells all believers that we are supposed to go to church!  But, the question then becomes, why is gathering together in church so important?  Why can’t I just have faith and worship God privately?  Why can’t I just mind my own business and maybe watch a sermon on YouTube and that be good enough?  Well, these are all good questions, and questions that are very relevant in our post-COVID-19 society.  So, what I thought I would like to talk to you all about this month is why it is so important to be in church.  Specifically, I want to focus on the four themes of equipping, growth, completeness, and fellowship.

So, first, we come to church to be equipped.  Anyone who has heard me preach should be more than familiar with the words of Matthew 28:18-20:  “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”  This is what’s known as the Great Commission, the final command that Jesus gave to His followers about how we are to live out our faith.  And how do we get the teaching, the training, the equipping that you need in order to accomplish this mission from Jesus?  We do it by going to church and sitting under the preaching and teaching of the pastor, the elders, and the other church leaders.  By sitting under the teaching of those who have been gifted for such a task, we are allowing the Holy Spirit to use these leaders to speak to our hearts to prepare and train us for the mission of the Great Commission to go and make disciples.

Second, we come to church for growth.  This is the natural outworking of the equipping, when we are equipped to go and make disciples, when we sit under the teaching of the word, we are allowing the Holy Spirit to deepen our faith and help us to grow as followers of Jesus Christ.  As Paul wrote to the Ephesians in the chapter above, we won’t be “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”  Instead, we will become spiritually mature and will be ready, willing, and able to stand firm in our faith and stand up against false teaching and the lies of the world.  One part of growing and maturing as a Christian is certainly spending time in personal prayer and Bible study, but the other part of growing and maturing as a Christian is being part of a body of believers and being equipped and trained by the leaders God has appointed over His church.

Now, you might be saying, “Pastor, this is all well and good, but I can be equipped and grow in my faith sitting on my couch watching preachers on TV, or watching your sermons online.”  And that’s certainly true, you can accomplish the above two things from your home, they likely won’t be as effective, but you certainly can.  However, the next two things, I would argue, can only be accomplished within the body of believers.  So, the third reason we come to church is for completeness and unity.  There is a reason that the Bible uses the metaphor of a body to describe the church as Paul does in the passage from Ephesians above; and that is because, just like a body, the church is designed to have different parts that do different things, but work together to form one, functional, complete whole.  God has gifted each person with different abilities, different gifts; some people are gifted to teach, others are gifted to pray, others are gifted in caring for others, so on and so forth.  If anyone of us refrains from coming to church, we are depriving the body of Christ the ability to function as a complete, united whole.  The human body couldn’t function at all if all it was made up of was a collection of knee joints; it needs all of its individual parts working together to function.  And the church can’t function to its fullest ability, it can’t accomplish the work of the Great Commission unless all of its parts are present, working together as one to accomplish the mission and ministry of the church.  We need teachers, we need pray-ers, we need comforters, we need evangelists, we need counselors, we need all of these things and more to be as effective as we can be in spreading the good news of the Gospel to our community.  Take away one of those and the body won’t be able to function as well, or as efficiently, as God designed it to.

Then, the fourth reason that we come to church is for fellowship.  The Christian life is not intended by God to be lived in isolation, but to be lived in community.  God designed us to be social creatures, and He designed our faith to be lived out communally.  And, there are a couple of reasons why fellowship is such an important part of the Christian life.  First, it is through fellowship that we receive encouragement.  When things are going bad, when the chips are down and it seems like God isn’t listening, it is through fellowship that we are encouraged to stay the course and keep relying on God.  It is through fellowship that we are encountered with people who can empathize with us, support us, and help us carry on.  Second, it is through fellowship that we are, as Paul says, spurred on by one another toward love and good deeds.  Let’s face it, being a Christian can be hard, loving our enemies can be hard, going out of our way to minister to others can be hard.  But, when we fellowship with one another, we find the support and, yes, encouragement to continue on as God would have us to, doing good deeds and spreading His love and His Gospel in our community.  It is in fellowship with the community of believers that we find the support, strength, encouragement, and perseverance to carry on living our lives faithfully from other believers who are enduring many of the same trials.

Finally, and I know I said that I was focusing on four themes, but this deserves an “honorable mention” because it is also important:  we go to church to model good, faithful behavior to others.  When young Christians, or even those who are not yet Christians, see us faithfully attending church, we set the standard that that’s what Christians do…they go to church, they worship, they learn, and they fellowship.  For young Christians, it gives them an example to follow as they figure out how to live out their faith; and for unbelievers, this shows them that we are different, that we are set apart, that we do strive to practice what we preach.  If we, as Christians. are not setting an example for others of what it means to follow Christ, no one will; and we might miss an opportunity to really impact someone’s life with the Gospel.

So, there are the four reasons (plus one bonus reason) that it is so important for Christians to be in church.  In closing, I will leave you with the words of someone much more equipped to speak on this than I by repeating these words from Hebrews: “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  To that, I will simply add:  Amen!  And I hope to see you all on Sunday!

May the blessings of the Father and the peace of the Son be with you,

Pastor Keith