Why Join This Church?

INTRODUCTION:

Why would anybody want to join this church?

There’s a direct correlation between you experiencing God’s best for your life and you’re being committed to and engaged with a healthy local church.

But this is only true insofar as a church is yielded to God’s design for the church. And his design is a community fully yielded to the Holy Spirit and in submission to the Lordship of Christ.

People are craving community in our culture and many churches scratch that itch by imitating cultural forms of community. We sometimes create community in church through shared life experiences (singles, parents, young), similar identity (cowboy churches motorcycle churches, artistic churches), similar causes (feeding hungry, homeless, elementary schools, human trafficking), similar needs (felt needs, debt, grief, self-help) or some it’s just old fashioned social hierarchy (movers and shakers.)

Building community on those grounds isn’t wrong. But it’s not going to cause anybody to take notice. It’s natural. Birds of a feather flock together. The local church has been called to embrace and embody a supernatural community. That’s compelling.

The Gospel is proclaimed when two people who would - outside of church - probably have nothing to do with each other - and yet, because of their shared love for Christ and common commitment to their local church - they love one another in spite of their significant differences. That’s a compelling community.

Consumer mindset doesn’t breed community.

Supernatural community requires commitment.