No Lone Wolves: Why the Church is the Real Deal

Last week I gave a rough, incomplete overview of a FEW of the reason why church (specifically local church) is so important to the believer. So today I’m going to tell you what I believe based on my understanding of scripture and then I am going to defend it (apologetics).

I believe that the local church is vital to the maturing and mission of the Christian individual.

Where did I get this from?

Vital: Gen. 2:18; Hebrews 10:24-25

Man was created to be in relationship with other people.

Response to an argument:

CDC and AMA have both acknowledged that it is harmful to the health to feel “socially isolated and lonely”

“Now, I’m a romantic and a poet, and there’s something to be said about the broken heart—literally and figuratively speaking,” he said. “If you’re already feeling lonely, that’s going to impact your heart. If you’re feeling socially isolated, that’s going to impact your heart.” Dr. Clark - AMA website article titled “What doctors wish patients knew about loneliness and health”

Maturing of a Christian: Eph. 4:1-16; Gal. 6:1-3; Hebrews 5:12-13

The local church and its relationships, processes, and people are how we grow in maturity as Christians.

In Revelation Jesus instructs John to write a letter to 7 individual churches. Some scholars say that this represents the different church ages or eras but these are also literal churches that John writing too. These are not made up.

In three separate instances in scripture we are given a blueprint for how to exercise church discipline (Matt. 18; 1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 2:3-11) which implies that we are to be connected to a larger group of believers that hold the same beliefs and convictions as us.

Mission of a Christian: Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; …Really the whole book of Acts.

The local church is the home base for how God takes his Gospel message to the world. In Acts we have countless examples of the church in Jerusalem sending people out to take the Gospel to the world.