Jim Samra is the senior pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His new book, The Gift of Church: How God Designed the Local Church to Meet Our Needs as Christians, tackles the question often asked of Christians today: “Why Bother with Church?”
Following is part 1 of a 2-part interview. The second installment is available here. - AR
EC: Why does God want us to assemble – how is church a gift to meet our needs?
JS: In my book, The Gift of Church, I highlight six ways that participating in a church meets very real needs we have as Christians. Briefly, these are:
1) Church allows us to experience God’s presence in unique and powerful ways; 2) Church is where God brings unity out of diversity in Christ; 3) Church provides us with true community to overcome the loneliness we experience as a result of the effects of sin; 4) The church is designed by God to help Christians grow and mature; 5) Church is able to accomplish more for the kingdom of God than would be possible as individuals; and 6) The church makes visible the invisible Jesus allowing the world to see Him.
EC: Why do Christians “church shop” around so casually in our culture?
JS: Instead of recognizing how God provided the church to meet our needs, we focus on how the church can satisfy our wants. When that happens we can find ourselves constantly disillusioned with church because we are desiring something God did not design it to do. If we think the solution is to find another church, this merely compounds the problem because before long the same problem arises!
EC: Why a local church – and not some other group of Christians? Or virtual “cities” in cyberspace? Can’t we find community there?
JS: One of the analogies I use in the book is that gathering together for worship is like hearing God in concert. If you were to help make arrangements for a concert, you would find out that bands can be quite particular about how everything is set up. They will often specify a minimum stage size, have their own sound and lights personnel, require certain kinds of equipment to be available, and so on. Bands have these specific requirements because they know that certain equipment and staging is required to ensure their fans have a great experience at the concert. The same is true of God. Of course, his design has nothing to do with stage size, light or equipment. But he does have requirements if we want to experience his presence the way he intends for that to happen. For example, one of the requirements God laid out for the church is that it is to be as diverse as possible with regard to age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, etc. (e.g., 1 Cor 12:13). Most parachurch or online communities minister to a very specific demographic (college students, seniors, doctors, athletes, etc.). While these groups are important, they cannot and should not replace the church. When they do, the members miss out on the full experience of God.
While people disagree on what exactly constitutes a church, there is much agreement about what God has revealed in Scripture as to what constitutes a church. For example, most Christians agree that to be a church there must be two or three Christians gathering together in Jesus’ Name. These Christians must also preach and teach God’s Word and be committed to the right exercise of baptism and communion. Churches are devoted to the full mission of Jesus, meaning that whatever ministry Jesus did, churches are responsible for doing (feeding the poor, sharing the gospel, discipling believers, comforting the weary, etc.) Parachurch ministries are usually only committed to some aspects of the mission of God.
EC: What do recent attendance drops of Christian evangelicals indicate, in your opinion?
JS: Recent attendance drops indicates two things to me. First, most evangelicals do not appreciate God’s design of the church. Those in leadership are too quick to abandon essentials of what it means to be a church in order to satisfy people in their congregation. Church members often fail to appreciate what God has provided in the church. Second, Satan knows that if you want to steal a sheep, the best thing to do is get the sheep away from the herd, and so he tries very hard to get Christians to believe the lie that regular participating in a church is not important. I believe that there is great spiritual warfare surrounding Christians participating in local churches.
The other day I shared a meal with someone who occasionally attends the church where I pastor. His experience has been that many Sunday mornings he wakes up and simply doesn’t feel like going to church. Yet, according to him, when he does go he always experiences something from the Lord and is usually glad that he went. On the other hand he has a Wednesday morning Bible study that he does with his friends – people who are just like him. My friend indicated that he always looks forward to that group. While he interpreted his feelings to mean that church must not be as important or he would have looked forward to it more, I shared that if his participation on Wednesday morning was really more beneficial for his spiritual life he would experience more spiritual resistance.
Click here for the rest of my interview with Jim!
