Inside Out 228: Church Matters
12.07.11 |
Does church matter?
You know what I think just by reading the title of this post. So maybe the better question is: “Do people think that church matters?”
Facts are that since 1991 church attendance has dropped from 49% to 40%. For some, painful past experiences overwhelm a desire to be part of a fellowship of believers. Others think that listening to sermons on YouTube, reading Bible studies on-line and finding social interaction at the local coffee house is “doing church.”
But it’s not. Even if you could, as an individual, create all of the activities on your own that you would participate in during church, you would still miss out. That’s because being part of a church--being part of a local “body of believers”--is more than a checklist of the Christian disciplines and activities. Certainly, jumping into a local church doesn’t guarantee your salvation—and we can talk about that if you like---but the moments of delight and despair woven through church life are often the tools God’s Holy Spirit uses to sanctify His people. More often than not, we become disciples of Jesus Christ in community.
Agree? Disagree? Listen to this Inside Out conversation on the need for church. Our guest is author and blogger Mary DeMuth. DeMuth has published 12 books that include memoir, fiction and Christian living. Her recent her.menutics blog post compelled me to invite her into a conversation. The title of her post? “Why Church Matters.”
Click here to read the her.menutics blog post “Why Church Matters:” http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2011/10/why_church_matters.html
To learn more about Mary DeMuth, click here: http://www.marydemuth.com/
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Comments
Your Comments(please keep them on topic and polite)
on 12.07.11 Mary DeMuth commented
Thanks for hosting me on your show! It was a terrific experience.
on 12.07.11 nancy stratton commented
God's timing is so perfect. I have a friend that might want to hear this.
We met a couple months ago. She loves the Lord, but was turned off from church because of a bad experience.
My desire is to be a friend and encourage her.
on 12.07.11 Martha commented
Nancy,
I hope this can be a conversation starter with your friend. May God bless your interaction, and may she find a body of believers where she feels safe and able to fully involve herself in the work God is doing in the church and in the world.
on 12.09.11 Raymon A Timmermans commented
In my experience, part of the reason people don't attend church is that they see it as irrelevant to the issues that face them from Monday-Saturday. Too often "church people"--people who are the "regular attenders" are on the wrong side of social issues that are important to many.