Why Church?

 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

 

Why do we do Church? What is the purpose of going to church? The best way to answer a question is to tell us what is not doing church.

What is not doing church is meeting for an hour on Sunday and getting preach at.

What is not doing church is meeting for two hours of obedience training.

What is not doing church is dividing into small groups each Sunday to gossip about others.

If you are a part of a church that does any or all of these, you are not doing church you are a part of a social club. The only difference between you and the Rotary, Ruritans and the Kiwanis is that your organization puts the word “church” at the end of their name.

 

This was not the purpose of church as Jesus would establish. The form and goal of the church was simple and found in Jesus two final messages as He exited this earth. The first is of course found in Matthew 28:19-20

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The message is simple, it is not weighted down with a bunch of complex theological doctrines that we must take a part to understand. It is as about as straight forward as Jesus could make it. So that we can all understand lets look at this part by part.

Go

This simple two letter word lets us know that pew sitting is not a spiritual gift. This requires that the body of Christ is active in the conversion of people. Our current church culture has relegated this responsibility to the ministry professional class of pastor, evangelist and missionaries. See we pay tithes so these people can GO for us. This is the same wrong thinking that government social programs are a substitute for the Christian to give and help the poor. Well, that is why I pay taxes. Christian grace is not shown by the level of taxes one pays, not is the command to GO is manifested in you paying tithes so others can do the witnessing in your place. So, you are required to get out of that pew and GO. It is not a complex thing to do, Jesus made it quite simple.

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 5:16

In other words, go and be a Christian, allow the love of Christ shine through you that His light may be seen in you. This is the greatest witness that you can be for Christ.

 

Make Disciples

This is the process of conversion. We as a church need to work to convert the lost to Christ. How? Do the first, go, light your light shine, people will ask why you are so different, you can say come and see, invite them to church. A proper Gospel lead, Bible preaching church will be giving the Word of God each week. This is that the members who are made stronger in the faith, and that those who come in the door for the first time, get a taste of what true Christianity looks like. Making Disciples is the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. The roll of the church is to grow each member in the knowledge of the Word of God, in that they will have the confidence to GO. I GO, because I have been made a DISCIPLE, I am a DISCIPLE and I want to GO tell others.

 

All Nations

There were and, in many places, want to exclude others from our churches because they do not look like us and hence, we really don’t think they will fit in. That exclusionary attitude is not only wrong, but also sinful. There is a reason, Jesus said ALL NATIONS, so that no one would be excluded from the Body of Christ. We should never assume that because a person is a different race or ethnic background that they would not want to be a part of the church. This is nonsense. Everyone needs Jesus, not just those who look like us.

 

Baptizing them

Yeah, baptism matters. We of course know that it does not save, but what it does do is show commitment to the first two, GO and MAKE DISCIPLES. Being baptized means that you are in, you have now decided that the Christian faith is how you want to live your live. And so, making a public profession of an inward change tells the rest of the Body of Christ you are now a willing participant. Baptism is the fruit of a good discipleship program. Those who have been discipled in the faith will see and understand the need to make that public profession.

 

Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you

Teaching is not preaching, and preaching is not teaching. Teaching is much harder. During a sermon, no one is raising their hand and asking the pastor to explain what he meant. This happens when you teach, and if it does not happen, you need to engage more with your membership. Preaching happens on Sunday morning, the rest of the time we should be teaching our members, and we should be teaching out of the Word of God. These so-called Sunday School materials are no more than daily devotions that lack substance and do not challenge the individual to dig deeper into the Word of God. Regular Bible Study is not something that should be done, it is a command from Jesus Himself, and if your church does not have a regular and often scheduled Bible Study available for its members there needs to be some serious changes made to your church staff. The role of the Pastor is to oversee the discipleship of his flock, and that entails more than just preaching at them on Sudays. Any pastor who is satisfied with just a Sunday only service is not worthy to be a pastor. He does not have a heart for discipleship he should not be a pastor. He should check his heart and search the scriptures.

 

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus closes with a very powerful statement. You are not alone. We may look at all this and say, there is no way that I can do this, and you would be right, on your own you cannot. But Jesus did not say do this all by yourself, He has given you the Holy Spirit, He has given you His Word, and He has given you others who are willing and worthy of the task ahead. Jesus is with His Church, call on His name, ask Him for Help and guidance, lean on Him, not upon yourself. He is with you, you are not walking this path alone. Remember what Paul said to our Philippians brothers.

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

Philippians 4:13

 

Darin Bracy is the pastor at Yorktown Baptist Church in Yorktown Virginia. He is a graduate of Veritas Baptist College with a BA in Ministry and a minor in History. He has a wife Stacy, two daughters, Ashlynne and her husband Justin, their daughter Harper and Aftyn, and her two dogs, Eddie and Lulubelle.

You can reach Darin at his email address, Darinbracy@gmail.com and you can see his video content on YouTube – Basic Baptist Guy

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