Why Church?

Can’t we experience God on our own without having ‘to come to church?’  I feel God’s presence when I’m hiking or out in God’s creation, isn’t that enough?

We can experience God without ever stepping foot in a church.  But we don’t get the full picture that way.  We need more than we can experience on our own.

We believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life giving us ultimate and unfettered access to God (John 14:1-7).  We need no other mediator (like a priest or a church) to experience the Holy (Hebrews 9).  We can find God in nature, in our homes, in every corner of our lives. 

Yet, we believe the reason we need the church is because we too easily go our own way, make up our own truth, live our own lives.  We only get glimpses of Jesus on our own.  Joining with others who are different gives us a richer, fuller picture of Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  It’s joining with people who love us, frustrate us, and push us to get beyond our narrow understandings of grace and love and truth.  We need others.  That’s what we have to offer people who like Jesus, but maybe aren’t sure he’s the only way.  It’s what we have to offer people who like Jesus, but aren’t so sure about the Church. 

Church isn’t a building.  It’s a people.  It’s people gathered together to worship and make difference in Christ’s name.  The whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Ephesians 4:1-16).

Does church really make anyone better? Look at the statistics on moral issues…it seems like it’s full of hypocrites who are no better than anyone else out there.

It’s absolutely true, the church is full of sinners.  The Bible is quite clear that no one is righteous, not one (Romans 3:10).  Even the most prolific writer of the New Testament admits a battle within his own soul—knowing the good still doing the bad (Romans 7).  It’s just that in the Church, we’re honest about our need for God.  We’re both saints and sinners—each one—in need of God’s grace.  Together we hold each other up, pray for one another, and help one another (James 5:13-16).  We trust and pray that Jesus will eventually grow us and change us to be more like him.