Brentwood Baptist Church
People finding God

Belonging to the church

There is a question I am sometimes asked. "Can I be a Christian without belonging to a church?"

Somebody once said. “Trying to live the Christian life without belonging to a church is just as possible and just as sensible as being:

A student who refuses to go to lectures or seminars or tutorials.

A salesman with no customers.

An explorer with no base camp.

A seaman on a huge ship with no other crew.

A tuba player without an orchestra.

A football player without a team.

Anybody who chooses to live completely alone on a desert island.

God does not want us to be “solitary” Christians. Our discipleship is not just a private and personal thing. Our Christian lives should not normally be lived out in isolation but in the fellowship of the church. The church is the community of disciples. If we want to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ we will express our discipleship by belonging to a church.

Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Becoming a Christian, being baptise, led on automatically to being “added to the number of believers”, added to the company of believers – the church.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common…. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts… . And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

To become a believer automatically means to be added to the number of believers – the church. `The church' is not a building. The church is not an organisation. The church is a group of people! The Bible says the church is "The Body of Christ", made up of all Christians in every age. Even if they never meet up with any other Christians, anybody who has eternal life IS a member of this invisible universal church. The church God’s “Forever Family” made up of everybody who has a personal relationship with God as their Father.

But the Bible also uses the word "church" to refer to a local group of Christians meeting in a particular place, a local congregation. All true Christians will want to show they belong to the universal church by playing their part in a local church. Being a Christian but not belonging to any local church really would be like trying to be a football player without being part of a team!

We can easily misunderstand the ideas of “belonging to a church” or “church membership” if we think of it in the weak remote sense of membership you find used in some secular organisations and clubs. Some people treat being a member of a church just like being a member of the RAC or the AA – pay your subscriptions once a year and you can call the church out to help as often as you like. But belonging to a church is much more like being a member of a family or a member of an orchestra or a member of a football team. Belonging to a church is not a matter of privileges but of participation. It’s not about what we can receive but what we can give and what we can accomplish together.

We are all different in the time and energy we are able to devote to church life. But every Christian who is taking an active part as far as they are able in the worship and fellowship and witness of Brentwood Baptist Church belongs to this church and is a valuable part of the church. Even if your name is not yet on the membership list, even if you are not formally a member of that human legal organisation called Brentwood Baptist Church, we hope you feel at home here. If you are playing your part in the life of the church then you belong to the church. In Bible terms all Christians are members of that part of Christ’s body which meets here, all are valued members of the church. That’s the way it should be in God’s perfect plan. That’s the way it needs to be!

Billy Graham said, “Christians are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame burning brightly; when they separate, they die out.” We need each other as Christians – we need the church!

Belonging to any church brings us many blessings. There are the blessings of sharing in the church’s worship and fellowship and witness. There are the blessings of receiving teaching and pastoral care.

But belonging to a church also implies commitment to the church and its activities by loyal attendance (not only on Sundays!) and by giving time, talents and financial support to that church. True belonging brings both blessings and obligations. To help us think through what our obligations are if we belong to a church, I have put together a list of eight “Responsibilities of Belonging to the Church.”

1. To follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly, open to His encouragement, leading and discipline through His church.

Matthew 18:15-18.

We all need other Christians to help us in our discipleship, to encourage us but also to challenge us and steer us in the right direction sometimes.

2. To seek to grow in Christian discipleship day by day in your relationship with God, in personal holiness and in understanding of the faith.

Micah 6:8.

The Bible and the Holy Spirit can teach us individually about Jesus, but God’s plan is that we should learn from other Christians. We all need the church to teach us through sermons, Bible Studies, Home Groups and other meetings. A Christian who wants to grow will look for Bible teaching mid-week, not just once a week on Sundays. We have much to learn too about faith from the experiences of other Christians.

3. To seek to witness by words and lifestyle to all that Jesus Christ has done and is doing in your life.

Matthew 28:18-20

Acts 1:8.

Christians are ambassadors for Christ and also for the church. Each of us should be active and enthusiastic in sharing our faith with neighbours and friends in any ways we possibly can. But our witness TOGETHER is often so much more powerful than our witness as individuals – thing about Lighting Up Brentwood yesterday!

4. To be as regular as possible at worship (especially communion), church meetings and other church events.

Hebrews 10:24-25.

There are a number of ways in which Christians should express their faith. Meaningful worship and regular Bible teaching are vital to the spiritual health of every believer. Sharing regularly in praise and prayer with other believers can be one of the most uplifting experiences in the Christian life. Communion especially is an expression of belonging as well as the greatest opportunity to receive the blessing of God. It’s good to plan to receive Communion at least once a month, but Christians should also surely plan to be at worship every week. The issue here is not taste or convenience but discipleship.

5. To pray faithfully for the life and work of the church and for World Mission.

Matthew 18:19-20

Prayer is at the heart of the Christian life. Some members of the fellowship may find it difficult or impossible to attend meetings, or even to get to services. For a variety of very good reasons, at different stages of life, some Christians are not be available to play an active part in the church in any areas of service or witness. But EVERY Christian can support the church in prayer, and almost all could arrange to meet with one or two others, say in a prayer triplet, on a regular basis to pray for the life and work of the church. Praying together is at the heart of the life of any church.

6. To play a loving and loyal part in the fellowship, caring for others, sharing freely and bearing each other's burdens.

Acts 2:42-47

Galatians 6:1-2

The principal occasions for fellowship and pastoral care are the midweek Home Groups and Prayer Meetings. The church is more of a family in these smaller gatherings than it can be in larger meetings.

As members of God’s family we can share our Christian lives with brothers and sisters. We can share our joys and sorrows, questions and doubts, needs and problems, with others and we can all be used by God to help each other grow as Christians. As we share our lives together, care for others and bear one another’s burdens, so we obey Christ’s New Commandment to love one another as He loved us (John 13:34-35). So we should make time to get to know other Christians and talk, study and pray in small informal groups so that we can grow together. For most Christians belonging to a HOME GROUP will be very important.

7. To serve God in practical ways in the church and in the world using the skills, abilities and spiritual gifts He has given.

Romans 12:4-8

Most Christians would also expect to find a practical or pastoral task which is their sphere of service within their local church and we discover our ways of serving God through the church. It is here that our spiritual gifts can be recognised and developed. We can learn to serve God and the church best in a loving atmosphere with the help and guidance of older Christians.

8. To give sacrificially to God to support the church and Christian work.

2 Corinthians 8:2-4, 7

The ministry and mission of the church is the responsibility of the members of the church. As a Baptist Church particularly, nobody outside the church pays for what the church here does. The government doesn’t give Baptist churches any money. Other charities don’t give us money – we give them money! All the costs of the building and the activities here are paid for by the members of the church. The minister, youth worker, outreach worker, administrator. Not forgetting Lyn and James and Andrea in Uganda who are supported almost totally by members of the church here, or Evgeniy and Aneta in Bulgaria and Sarah Pryor with the Baptist Missionary Society in Nepal, and Baptist Home Mission, and all the other Christian activities we give from church funds to support. This is all God’s work and God’s people pay the bills!

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, once saidm

“The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion; some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted. So we must be regular practicing members of the church. Of course we differ in temperament. Some (like you—and me) find it more natural to approach God in solitude; but we must go to church as well. For the church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities, but the body of Christ, in which all members, however different (and he rejoices in their differences and by no means wishes to iron them out) must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences.”

Being a Christian is like being a singer in a choir or a player in an orchestra. God does not want us to be soloists. He wants us to play our part, while others play their parts! That way we can join with the choirs of angels and the music really is heavenly!

Eph 4:15-16 Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From 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.

^{NEW LIVING TRANSLATION of v.16} Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Brentwood Baptist Church People finding God