A common statement you hear coming from churches needs clarification. Depending on what church contexts you run in, you’ll frequently hear church leaders say things like, “You can’t love Jesus without loving the church,” or “You can’t be committed to Jesus but not his bride,” etc, etc. I certainly find myself often beating that drum. And I fear the message often comes across that you had better get more involved in church in order to be a good Christian, or you are not pulling your weight.
It’s understandable how the message of the importance of the local church might come across this way, especially when being trumpeted by leaders of a local church. The whole thing is a bit self-serving. We need you to be more involved in order for things to run smoothly, work to get done, heck even bills to get paid. We can dress that up by saying it’s all to advance the mission – and that is true and not insincere – but that’s another blog post. But it’s still easy to get the message that despite sincere intentions, a lot of the motivation is the church leaders want you to do more to help the church. And while you think that’s a great thing, it’s not the same thing as loving and following Jesus.
From here I could talk about how loving Jesus and loving the church IS the same thing, but again that’s a different blog post. Instead I want to assure you that for many church leaders, the organization running more smoothly is genuinely not the motivation for pleading with people to be connected to the local church.
No, the motivation is that we want you to know Jesus, and we’re genuinely concerned that at some point in the future, probably sooner rather than later, you’re going to find yourself not feeling as close to him as you are now. And you won’t care.
You WILL fall away from following Christ if you’re not connected to his body.
Not that you might fall away.
Not that you won’t be as effective for the Kingdom or get as much done.
Not that you’ll have less support in following Jesus and it will be harder.
Without a deep and meaningful connection to the people of God, you will not continue in following Jesus. Whatever warm feelings you might have in the present about Jesus and who he is and what he’s done, if you’re not deeply connected to a local church body I can save you some time by letting you know that your current experience won’t last. It never does.
Why? Not because we are weak or we can’t follow Jesus on our own. If that was the case then maybe you’re the exception to that rule. But that’s not the problem, in fact that kind of thinking reveals the real problem. It’s not about you and what you do or don’t do.
Jesus died and rose again to save a people for himself. He’s called you out of isolation and into community with God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit AND other people who are following him. That’s what life in God’s Kingdom is about and it’s what following Jesus is about. You’re reconciled with God and being reconciled with others.
The reason you will inevitably fall away from following Jesus if you are not deeply connected to a local church community is not because you need the community to be faithful. The reason you need the local church body is because without his body, you’ve not truly experienced Jesus. Without the church, whatever you think you’ve found or understood is in some sense a mirage. It’s a counterfeit. It’s not the real thing. You have information about Jesus and information about who he is and what he’s done, and you like that information. You might even feel something because of that information, but it’s not the same thing as knowing Jesus.
You’re in love with an idea, not a person. The person of Jesus is the head of a church body that is relentlessly advancing his Kingdom. If you’re not in that body in a tangible, local way – you don’t know him.
Not many things cause me more distress than brushing up against people who think they know Jesus but only know ideas about him. And nothing makes that more clear than a lack of connection to Jesus’ body. I’ve been around long enough to see people come and go, get excited and lose interest, have highs and drop off – find faith and lose it. The common denominator is always that those who are a part of Christ’s body persevere and those who are not, do not.
If something isn’t going to last, it’s not real.
When you hear, at least at the Village (I can only speak for us), that you can’t love Jesus without loving the church, know that the heart behind that is not that you would contribute more to the organization. The heart behind pleading with you to love the church is so that you would truly know and experience Jesus.