Monday, September 8, 2025

When I was a new believer in Christ, I had a heard a few messages about how "being in a church doesn't make you a Christian any more than being in a garage makes you a car."   The point being that it is not church attendance or "just showing up" that puts your name into the Lamb's Book of Life.  

Being a Christian is about a radical heart-change that takes one who is lost and dead in their sins and transforms them into a new creation that loves the Lord Jesus Christ.   This can happen while attending church.  Yet, it can happen anywhere else that the gospel is preached and someone repents and believes (my radical change happened in the Ozarks of Missouri in a hotel ballroom).  

Yet, I missed something as a 20-something who loved Jesus.  I took that statement in a way that caused me to somewhat defy church.  For several years I fought against serious church-involvement.  I had an "I don't need to be here to be a Christian" attitude.   The way that "church=Christian / garage=car" statement is typically intended is correct.  .  .  but it can also be so very wrong.  Being in church does make you a Christian because a non-churched Christian is inconceivable in the Bible.

Of course, as a young believer, I did go to church.  A bit.  I was there many Sunday mornings.  But, I hardly connected beyond that.   What I had missed early on is the importance of gathering outside of Sunday mornings.   If I had sincerely studied in Scripture the treatment of church attendance I would have seen that gathering is not optional but is actually the nature of Christian identity.   Think it through by just asking a few simple questions...  

� Question (Matt: 18, 1 Cor. 5):  Can we seriously do church discipline unless we are able to be part of a visible community where discipline can be seen as needed and then applied?

� Question (Heb 10):   Can we really help others persevere and give appropriate warnings without spending enough time one-on-one with folks (i.e. more than a few minutes before and after church on a Sunday morning)?  

� Question ("one another"):  There are dozens and dozens of "one another" commands, thus forcing us to ask, "Can we really love, bear burdens, encourage, exhort, etc, without ongoing relationship and presence?"

� Question (1 Cor. 12-14):  Can we really use our spiritual gifts, exercising them well, to then entire body in a little more than an hour or two with one another each week?   (a bonus question might be how God might view our usage of the gifts He has given us... scary thought).  

� Question (1 Cor. 11:17):  Is it possible that our being physically present at times but still spiritually disengaged can harm other believers because we are failing to discern the body?  

I'll confess that I never really did have a revelation where my mindset changed overnight.  It didn't suddenly occur to me how important it is to gather throughout the week with the church body ("day by day" is the wording in Acts 2).  What happened was that I just started showing up more.  I started showing up to Sunday school.  It blessed me; I was able to help teach others as well.  I started showing up on Wednesday nights or Sunday nights.  I was blessed and I got to encourage others in those times.  I started showing up at people's homes.  I started showing up to Saturday classes, home Bible studies, celebrations, and other church gatherings.  I was blessed and I more and more became a blessing.  I started showing up.  

I'm not saying "just show up" is enough.  But it certainly is a start.  Scripture shows active, relational, and intentional participation inside of a group of people.  Show up and then begin to encourage, contribute, stir up, use your gifts, praise, serve, and share.    

Where might you "show up" this week or next?   I hope to see you there!  

This 12-week study began Saturday.   Foundations of the Faith is a study of the "elementary" doctrines that we should know and upon which we should begin.   Mark your calendar for Saturdays from 9 to 10:30am.