The Efficacy of Prayer - Bill Elliff

The Efficacy of Prayer

Bill Elliff Jan 28, 2015

"Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn away His wrath from destroying them. (Psalm 106:23)

There are many who choose the light path in prayer. It is understandable, but tragic for they do not understand what they are missing.

OUR GREAT PRIVILEGE

Non-praying believers fail to realize the incredible opportunity they have been granted. Like Moses, we can "stand in the breach before God." Like no others, we can approach God's throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need.

This is prayer and prayer can do whatever God can do, for prayer is bringing God into the equation. We will one day deeply regret that we laid aside our greatest work and greatest joy and spent our days in far more frivolous pursuits.

OUR GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

But there is more. As rescued ones, we now have the means to aid in the rescue of others, like Moses. We can go before God on their behalf. God not only welcomes this intercession, but invites it. He tells us to pray without ceasing. Why would he demand such an activity if it were useless? If it accomplished nothing? If there were not redemptive purposes He longed to achieve through us in the loop of Divine intercession? 

God is ever training His children to rule and reign for eternity and part of our training is to learn how to pray. How to remain in communion for others out of love for them and faith in God. How to persevere without wavering. How to connect with God. How to bank on His promises. How to engage in the eternal work. 

Prayer is not something for a few privileged believers. It is your responsibility as a child of God to use this mighty tool for the salvation of others and the glory of God.

OUR GREAT POWER

God has repeatedly told us that there is an efficacy in prayer. That it works. That the "fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much." (James 5:16)

What if we believed this? All of us? What if a nation full of God's children stood in the breach before God for the people of our land to "turn away His wrath from destroying them?" What if all the people of God would cry out for sweeping revival in the church and spiritual awakening among unbelievers? What if we joined in intercession for a tidal wave of God’s presence so that “the earth would be full of the knowledge of the Lord like waters that cover the sea?” (Habakkuk 2:14)

What if God found us daily, hourly interceding for His Bride that she would be cleansed and purified and expanded for His glory? Would He refuse a prayer like this? Or, would He grant those requests as He did for a faithful intercessor named Moses? (Is this not why these examples are in the Bible?) And what if history was changed because of our faithfulness in prayer?

And what if we began today?

©2015 Bill Elliff.  Originally posted at Bill's Graceful Truth blog.

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Is Mormonisim True? Watch this video teaching

Mormons are really nice people. If you would like to learn more about them and what they believe, please join us for this thorough and thought provoking discussion. During the video, you will meet Cari Ardeani and Professors James Walker and Brian Boyles as they discuss the Mormon faith.

https://www.truelife.org/videos/is-mormonism-true

11 Financial Facts of the Southern Baptist Convention by Dr. Ronnie Floyd

Facts are our friends. Without the facts, one cannot determine reality. Without facing reality, it is impossible to chart a successful future. This is not only true for us personally, but for our churches as well as our Southern Baptist Convention.

Each of our churches has the privilege to join in our grand vision of reaching the world for Christ. We do this by giving monies through the Cooperative Program, which is our way to fund Great Commission work together statewide, nationally, and internationally.

Today, I share with you 11 Financial Facts of the Southern Baptist Convention. This is our reality. These facts are our friends because from here, we launch to the future.

These facts are not my opinions; they are facts about our financial status following the fiscal year from October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013. Following the presentation of these facts, I will extend three brief observations.

1. $482,279,059 was given in Total Cooperative Program by our churches through the State Convention through the SBC Fiscal Year, October 1, 2012, through September 30, 2013.

2. $188,001,276 was received by the SBC Executive Committee directly in order to distribute to our SBC entities:

• $183,419,803 from state conventions
• $4,581,473 from individuals and churches
• 38% on average was sent by the states to the National SBC CP Allocation Budget

3. $298,859,256 of the $482,279,059 was reported as the State Convention Share of Total Cooperative Program in order to conduct their Great Commission ministries.

4. 28,853 churches reported giving through the Cooperative Program on the latest Annual Church Profile report. Of the 46,124 churches, LifeWay reported that at least 8,846 churches did not submit an ACP report.

5. 17,721 churches did not self-report any giving through the Cooperative Program on the latest ACP report.

• $25,352,778 was received for the Cooperative Program from non-ACP reporting churches; therefore, when a church does not report Cooperative Program gifts on the ACP, it does not necessarily mean these churches did not give through the Cooperative Program.

6. 7.5% less monies was received by our churches over the past five years.

• $12.1 billion in 2008 to $11.2 billion in 2013

7. 5.6% is the percentile of decline of the National Cooperative Program over the past five years.

• $194 Million to $183 Million

8. $57,004,211 was reported by the North American Mission Board for the 2013 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North America Missions.

9. $154,057,852 was reported by the International Mission Board for the 2013 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions.

10. $777,452,659 was reported by the most recent ACP for 2013 Southern Baptist Convention gifts to “Great Commission Giving”, which is defined by the ACP as “total amount of all money given to Southern Baptist Mission causes by the congregation.”

• When you take this total and subtract Cooperative Program and the two major mission offerings, it means that Southern Baptist Convention congregations gave $84,111,698 to other Southern Baptist Missional endeavors.

11. $1,294,701,479 was reported as Total Mission Expenditures by congregations in the 2013 ACP (defined as “Total amount of all money given to Southern Baptist and non-Southern Baptist mission causes.”)

• When you subtract the $777,452,659 of Great Commission Giving from this figure, it means that Southern Baptist congregations gave an additional $517,248,659 to direct church mission trips or projects or non-Southern Baptist Convention mission causes. There is no way to quantify what was used for specific church mission trips or projects as compared to non-Southern Baptist Convention mission causes.

3 Brief Observations

1. Due to the increasing lostness in the world, each church needs to find a way to give now through our Cooperative Program and additionally, give more now than eve before, so we can continue advancing the gospel together. 

2. For the churches giving to mission causes apart from Southern Baptists, consider reallocating some of that money or even all of it to our Southern Baptist mission causes. 

3. Pastor and church leader, talk with your church’s financial team about increasing your church’s commitment to the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention.

In Closing

In closing, this is not about money and finances as much as it is about advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ at an accelerated pace. Together, we can do more than we can ever do by ourselves.

Yours for the Great Commission,

Ronnie W. Floyd

Senior Pastor, Cross Church

President, Southern Baptist Convention

*******

Dr. Ronnie Floyd is currently serving as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest Protestant denomination with more than 15.7 million members in over 46,000 churches nationwide.

You must take 3:20 minutes to watch this on "The Power of Forgiveness"

John MacArthur shares insights in Islamic attacks in Paris

Recent and potential terrorist attacks in France currently dominate the news cycle. Analysts, experts, and commentators discuss and debate the facts, often with skewed and confused perspectives on Islam, and offer a variety of political and emotional responses.

It’s no surprise that every time tragedy occurs—especially at the hands of Islamic terrorists—the world struggles to find answers and understand the spiritual realities involved. Discussions about politics and how governments should respond have their place. But void of spiritual truth, no discussion can fully deal with how to think about and respond to these horrific events.

Over the years John MacArthur and the Grace to You staff have put together messages and articles that relate well to these current events and can help you bring biblical truth to bear on your conversations with family and friends. We trust that the following resources will help and encourage you.

The Gospel According to Islam

Understanding Islam

Is God Responsible for Evil?

"Why Does Evil Dominate the World?"

An Interview with James White: A Primer on Islam

Terrorism, Jihad, and the Bible

God With Us

[God with Us - Name Above All Names Reading]

In GENESIS Jesus is the Ram at Abraham’s altar.

In EXODUS He’s the Passover Lamb.

In LEVITICUS He’s the High Priest.

In NUMBERS He’s the Cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

In DEUTERONOMY He’s the City of our refuge.

In JOSHUA He’s the Scarlet Thread out Rahab’s window.

In JUDGES He is our Judge.

In RUTH He is our Kinsman Redeemer.

In 1st and 2nd SAMUEL He’s our Trusted Prophet.

And in KINGS and CHRONICLES He’s our Reigning King.

In EZRA He is our Faithful Scribe.

In NEHEMIAH He’s the Rebuilder of everything that is broken.

And in ESTHER He is the Mordecai sitting faithful at the gate.

In JOB He’s our Redeemer that ever liveth.

In PSALMS He is my Shepherd and I shall not want.

In PROVERBS and ECCLESIASTES He’s our Wisdom.

And in the SONG OF SOLOMON He’s the Beautiful Bridegroom.

In ISAIAH He’s the Suffering Servant.

In JEREMIAH and LAMENTATIONS it is Jesus that is the Weeping Prophet

In EZEKIEL He’s the Wonderful Four-Faced Man.

And in DANIEL He is the Fourth Man in the midst of a fiery furnace.

In HOSEA He is my Love that is forever faithful.

In JOEL He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit.

In AMOS He’s our Burden Bearer.

In OBADIAH our Savior.

And in JONAH He is the Great Foreign Missionary that takes the Word of God into all of the world.

You go on and you see in MICAH He is the Messenger with beautiful feet.

In NAHUM He is the Avenger.

In HABAKKUK He is the Watchman that is ever praying for revival.

In ZEPHANIAH He is the Lord mighty to save, and the One who sings & dances over us!

In HAGGAI He is the Restorer of our lost heritage.

In ZECHARIAH He is our Fountain.

And in MALACHI He is the Son of Righteousness with healing in His wings.

And in the New Testament…

In MATTHEW “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Emmanuel, God with us!

In MARK He is the Miracle Worker.

In LUKE He’s the Son of Man.

And in JOHN He is the Door by which everyone of us must enter.

In ACTS He is the Shining Light that appears to Saul on the road to Damascus.

In ROMANS He is our Justifier.

In 1st CORINTHIANS our Resurrection.

In 2nd CORINTHIANS our Sin Bearer.

In GALATIANS He redeems us from the law.

In EPHESIANS he is our Unsearchable Riches.

In PHILIPPIANS He supplies our every need.

And in COLOSSIANS He’s the Fullness of the Godhead Body.

In 1st and 2nd THESSALONIANS He is our Soon Coming King.

In 1st and 2nd TIMOTHY He is the Mediator between God and man.

In TITUS He is our Blessed Hope.

In PHILEMON He is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother.

And in HEBREWS He’s the Blood of the everlasting covenant.

In JAMES it is the Lord that heals the sick.

In 1st and 2nd PETER He is the Chief Shepherd.

In 1st, 2nd, and 3rd JOHN it is Jesus who has the tenderness of love.

In JUDE He is the Lord coming with 10,000 saints.

And in REVELATION, lift up your eyes, Church, for your redemption draweth nigh, He is King of kings and Lord of lords!

"Why must a Christian be in Community in a Local Church?" by Sam Storms - Part Four

Sam Storms has written a four-part series on "Why must a Christian be in Community in a Local Church?"  This is part four.

We’ve been looking closely at Hebrews 10:23-25 and the importance of Christian community in the context of local church life. The exhortations we find here are clear enough, but what reasons does our author give for why we should be so urgent in responding to them?

“23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

First, look closely at the conclusion of v. 25. The importance of meeting regularly to stir up one another to love and good works, the importance of meeting regularly to encourage one another to hope ever more fervently in the promises of a faithful God, is grounded in the fact that with each passing day we come closer to the end of the age when Christ will return.

And according to numerous texts, the end of the age will bring with it increasing chaos and temptation and persecution and threats and trials and hardship. As we approach the Day of Christ’s return there will be more and more trouble, more and more cause for stress, more and more Satanic opposition.

I hardly need to mention this to you. Just open your eyes! If you can’t see the rapidly increasing decay of our society, morally, politically, economically, and spiritually, then you are dull and dense and beyond my ability to convince you otherwise! It will become increasingly difficult to be a Christian in the days ahead. Finding an excuse to bail out and join the other side will be increasingly easy when the pressure starts to mount. Never before have we so desperately needed each other!

Isolated, Lone-Ranger-Christians who think they can make it on their own and they don’t need the local church are destined to fail. Those who dismiss all this “one-anothering stuff” and this call for mutual encouragement are worse than fools.

The second thing I want to mention in closing isn’t found in the text. But it’s found elsewhere in God’s Word.

People ask me all the time how we at Bridgeway Church incorporate and express spiritual gifts in our large, Sunday morning meetings. And I tell them that it is very hard to do. We are under time pressure and it’s difficult to make room for prophecy and word of knowledge and praying for healing and many of the other gifts. We do it as well as it can be done, but the primary place for the use of your spiritual gift is in a small group. Five hundred people can’t speak in a Sunday morning gathering. Not everyone can exhort and encourage others or remind them of God’s promises. You can’t exercise mercy or serve as you would like to. But this can happen if you are part of small group!

You need to set aside time so that you aren’t rushed and to wait patiently for the Spirit to move. It’s only in a small group that you can create a safe atmosphere so people don’t have to be afraid of failure. They can take risks they would never take on a platform in front of 500 people.

I trust that now we are done you have a greater sense for the urgency and practical necessity of being embedded in the life of a local church community. I certainly do!

"Why must a Christian be in Community in a Local Church?" by Sam Storms - Part Three

Sam Storms has written a four-part series on "Why must a Christian be in Community in a Local Church?"  This is part three.

So what are the three things mentioned in Hebrews 10:23-25 that we are to accomplish on those occasions when we gather together or assemble ourselves?

“23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

First, we are “to stir up one another to love” (v. 24a).

The sort of “meetings” or gatherings or assembly that our author has in view are the sort that make possible mutual interaction. There has to be time and opportunity for everyone to speak truth to others and to hear truth spoken personally to them. There has to be time and opportunity for you to stir up or incite or “provoke” other Christians “to love” others better. Love isn’t easy, especially when it comes to people you don’t even like! You need to know why you should love, how you should love, in what concrete ways you can love, and how to overcome your tendency to despise and ignore other people in the church.

And you need to come to these meetings thinking about how you can do the same thing for other people. Explore what might be the obstacles to their love. What is it about their personality that hinders them? What truths in God’s Word have they failed to fully grasp that may be keeping them back?

Sunday mornings are essential. But they aren’t enough! And they are not the ideal occasion or setting in which you can speak to others what needs to be said so they will be motivated to love others more passionately. And if you’re the one who isn’t loving well you need to be with people who can take time to speak into your life and call you to account and explain the countless reasons why you need to learn how to love the unlovely better than you do.

I don’t know where I heard it but I love the phrase “urgent intentionality”. It means that when we gather we are urgently intentional about accomplishing something worthwhile. We are diligent not just to kill time or hang out. There’s too much at stake to waste our time and energy on things that not only won’t help us love better but actually serve to undermine our commitment to do so.

We see the “intentionality” in our author’s mind when he uses the word “consider” at the start of v. 24. Think in advance about what you are going to say. Have a plan. Give it some forethought. Don’t come unprepared. “Consider” every person that you know will be present. Ask God to give you some insight into their situation. Ask the Spirit to give you discernment and perhaps a word of prophecy or exhortation to help them love better than they already do. Craft your “meeting” so that when you leave you feel more equipped to love, more motivated to love, and filled with greater wisdom to know how to do it well.

In other words, don’t drift aimlessly into a meeting. Come on a mission! Come on the lookout for those in greatest need.

I was greatly helped by something John Piper pointed out about this text. He noted that he is fascinated with the fact that love, the most important Christian virtue, the most crucial of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, is designed by God to be awakened and sustained in your soul as you meet regularly with other Christians and listen to their exhortations and then in turn exhort others as well. I agree. Love is the fulfillment of the Law, says Paul (Romans 13:8). Loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself are the first and second most important commandments. To think that we would deliberately ignore and neglect those gatherings where this love can be stirred up and strengthened in us is simply unimaginable.

Second, we are “to stir up one another to . . . good works” (v. 24b).

I find it interesting that the goal here isn’t simply to love and live a life of holiness. The goal is to be an instrument in the life of someone else so they can! That doesn’t mean you can ignore the responsibility to love and walk in godliness. After all, the others in the group ought to have you in mind when they show up at the meeting!

And let’s not conclude that the “good works” here are only internal to the church. Certainly that is involved, but he also means that we are to stir up each other so that we might learn how to live a godly life in an ungodly world. Doing “good works” in the context of church life isn’t that hard. Everyone expects it of us. No one comes to church or to a community group with a plan for committing sin! But we often enter the world at large with precisely that thought in mind. So be diligent to think of ways that you can help others resist the temptations they’ll face and say No to the invitation to join the guys at the strip club.

Third, we are to “encourage one another” (v. 25).

This is just one of the dozens of “one another” texts in the Bible. Elsewhere we are told to “love one another” (1 John 4:11) and to “welcome” one another (Rom. 15:7) and to “serve” one another (1 Peter 4:10) and to “submit” to one another (Eph. 5:21) and to “do good to” one another (1 Thess. 5:15) and to “exhort” one another (Heb. 3:13) and to “admonish” one another (Col. 3:16) and to “speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19) and to “comfort” one another (2 Cor. 13:11) and to “instruct” one another (Rom. 15:14) and to “forgive” one another (Col. 3:13) and to “confess our sins” to one another and “pray” for one another (James 5:16) and to “show hospitality” to one another (1 Peter 4:9).

Now here is a critically important question. How do we encourage each other to love and to obey the Word of God? What are we supposed to say? To what are we to direct their attention? The answer is found back in v. 23. What is the root cause of love? What is it that will best motivate yourself and others to good works?

I believe the answer is ever-increasing confidence in the certainty of God’s promises to us in Jesus Christ! We need to make the goal of our meetings the strengthening of one another’s faith and belief in the truthfulness of all that God has done for us in Christ! “Where do you get that, Sam?” I get it in v. 23. Love and good works grow in the rich soil of hope in the truth of what God has promised.

Look closely at v. 23 – “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” We have a “hope” that is grounded in what God has revealed about his gracious purposes for us in Jesus. This “hope” entails not only our present salvation but our future glory in Christ. One day our redemption will be consummated. One day we will be rid of these fallen and corrupt bodies and will experience what the Bible calls glorification. One day we will forevermore live on a new earth.

As we teach each other and remind each other and press deeply into each other’s hearts truths like this it helps us hold ever more tightly to the confession we’ve made regarding them. And this is what awakens in us a desire to love others and a desire to say No to sin and Yes to God’s ways.

But how can I hold fast to my confession of this hope in a world filled with wickedness and injustice and people who can’t be trusted? The answer is in the second half of the verse: The God who promised us these things is “faithful”! He won’t lie to you. He won’t make a promise and then break it. He can be counted on to come through on everything he said he would do. He is faithful!

That’s why it’s important to devote time in your group to reading and studying the great and gracious acts of God in Scripture. Talk about creation! Talk about the exodus! Talk about the giving of the Mosaic Law! Talk about the great prophetic passages of the OT! Talk about the promises of a coming Messiah! Talk about God’s character! Talk about the Incarnation, where God became human in Jesus! Talk about his sinless life! Talk about his sacrificial and atoning death! Talk about his resurrection! Talk about his second coming! Talk about how God has granted you eternal life through faith in this glorious Savior! This is what you encourage one another with. This is the food with which you feed not only your soul but that of others.

And the simple undeniable reality is that you can’t gain this hope and certainly cannot grow more confident in it if you only curl up under your covers and cut yourself off from other Christians who need this hope as desperately as you do. You can only grow in this hope so that it will produce love and good works in community with other Christians who are just as needy and weak as you are.

So, I pray that you can see now the connection between v. 23 and vv. 24-25. The kind of love that helps others and magnifies God is the fruit of hope rooted and grounded in the faithfulness of God. The kind of good works that blesses others and glorifies God is the fruit of hope rooted and grounded in the faithfulness of God.

"Why must a Christian be in Community in a Local Church?" by Sam Storms - Part Two

Sam Storms has written a four-part series on "Why must a Christian be in Community in a Local Church?"  This is part two.

In the previous article I mentioned the necessity of all Christians being embedded in community in a local church. We find this in numerous biblical texts, but our focus here is on Hebrews 10:23-25.

“23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

I want to start with vv. 24-25. I’m not ignoring v. 23, but will return to it momentarily.

Evidently there was a slight problem in Rome. Some of the people who professed faith in Jesus had developed the habit or custom of only showing up on occasion and neglecting to make regular attendance at and participation in the communal life of the church a part of their experience.

Notice the word translated “habit” (v. 25a). You don’t cultivate a habit overnight. It takes time. You find yourself immersed in a habit, often one you can’t shake or break, when you live unintentionally. That is to say, you don’t get up each day with a plan for what is going to happen. You simply drift through life. You take things as they come without forethought or preparation or prioritizing the many things that compete for your time and allegiance.

It’s not that difficult to develop a habit of neglect when it comes to participation in the life of the local church. You miss a Sunday because you were sick. That’s not your fault, but the next week, although you are in perfect health, your favorite sports team is playing the early game at stadium (or gym) and someone offered you free tickets. The week after that you have to work late and can’t attend your small group and you’ve accidentally overslept on the last two mornings you were scheduled to meet with your prayer-group at Starbucks.

The next Sunday you show up at the service feeling rather proud of yourself for having made it. You were even on time for once! But then friends invite you to the lake the following week, and the Sunday after that you found yourself way behind in that project your boss was expecting you to have finished and on his desk on Monday morning. And before you know it, it’s just easier not to make the effort. And it just seems to make more and more sense as time passes to devote your energy to other things that feel more immediately rewarding. And to top it all off, you sit down for lunch with a friend who tells you the same thing has happened to them and you suddenly feel affirmed. Your neglect is now validated by the fact that you’re not the only one!

And with the passing of time and the repetition of the same pattern of life over and over and over you unconsciously find yourself relationally distant from the church and emotionally unfulfilled by it. You might even discover that you regularly justify to yourself such neglect by saying, “I’m doing ok. I’m not committing adultery. I still believe in God. And I just got a raise at work and my golf handicap has gotten considerably better. I like this way of being a Christian.”

Our author comes straight to the point regarding this sort of “habit” or “custom” and therefore so shall I: don’t do it, it’s sinful, it’s a recipe for personal moral and spiritual disaster. The reason is found in the rest of the passage.

Now let’s be clear that the “meeting together” mentioned here in v. 25a is not simply the Sunday morning service. In fact, given the fact that what happens at this sort of meeting is mutual personal interaction where Christians are “encouraging one another” it would seem that he has in mind more of what happens in our small groups instead of merely in our corporate assembly on Sunday mornings.

You must not depend on your pastor alone to encourage you or to stir you to do what is right! I’m sure he will do his best in the time God has given him. But it is your responsibility to do this for others and their responsibility to do it in turn for you.

I know this is difficult for some of you. You may have been raised in a church tradition like I was where small groups didn’t exist. I was in church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night every week. But I rarely had any opportunity to do what is described here or to benefit from someone else doing it for my sake.

Make no mistake: what you do on a Sunday morning is absolutely essential. Hearing the Word of God read, preached, and applied, celebrating the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, corporate prayer, corporate worship in song, hearing the testimonies of others whose lives God has touched or greatly used, are all crucial to the life of the believer. But when the early church gathered to do this there weren’t several hundred people in one room as there so often are today. So when we make application to our context in the twenty-first century we see the relevance of this far more in our smaller community group gatherings.

So don’t think you’ve been faithful to obey this command when you slip in late to a large Sunday morning gathering, say “hi” to a few folks during the meet and greet, and then quietly slip out while the final prayer is being spoken. That is not Christian living. That is not what our author means by “not neglecting to meet together.”

And clearly he is not talking about haphazard or sporadic meetings where you just happen to run across someone at Starbucks or the mall and you say, “Hey, since we’re both here, why don’t we obey Hebrews 10:25 and ‘meet’ for a little mutual encouragement.” That’s fine if you do, but don’t think that’s what our author has in mind!

Furthermore, don’t think the purpose of the meeting is so you can talk about why your team won (or, conversely, lost) its game last week. The purpose of these meetings isn’t to catch up on how the kids and grandkids are doing. It’s not an occasion for swapping office stories or for debating how you plan on voting in the mid-term elections! The purpose of the meetings is clearly stated.

So what exactly are we supposed to do? What is it that is so important and so needed that God would move upon the author of this book to command us not to neglect regular gathering so it might be accomplished?

He mentions three things. And we’ll look at them in the next installment.

Why must a Christian be in Community in a Local Church? - Part One by Sam Storms

Sam Storms has written a four-part series on "Why must a Christian be in Community in a Local Church?"  This is part one.

Gina Welch is a graduate of Yale University, teaches English at George Washington University, and is the author of the book, In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church (Metropolitan Books, 2010). Here is the description she provided of herself: “I am a secular Jew raised by a single mother in Berkeley, where we took a day off school in October for Indigenous Peoples, not for Christopher Columbus. I cuss, I drink, and I am not a virgin. I have never believed in God” (2).

Welch moved to Virginia and became a member of Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church, at the time a bastion of American fundamentalism. Yes, she lied about her identity. She lied about her reasons for being there. She lied about being a Christian. And in the end she betrayed a number of friends who thought she was someone she wasn’t. She explains it this way:

“It wasn’t that I had zero misgivings about going undercover – I did meditate on the wrongness of lying and the string of betrayals my project would likely leave behind – it was that I sort of managed to balance the whole messy moral equation on an unsteady ball bearing of cliché: You have to break some eggs to make an omelette” (9).

My purpose in mentioning Welch and her undercover endeavor isn’t to debate the ethics of what she did. It was, in my opinion, highly unethical. Rather, I bring her up to draw attention to what she experienced while at Falwell’s church. She found the politics repellent. The theology mystified her. And yet she said this about her experience of community:

“What I envied most about Christians was not the God thing – it was having a community gathering each week, a touchstone for people who share values, a safe place to be frank about your life struggles, a place to be reminded of your moral compass. Having a place to guard against loneliness, to feel there are others like you.”

It’s almost impossible to overestimate the importance of community. Knowing that others know you and won’t turn their backs in disgust; being accepted and loved and encouraged and held accountable to your own stated spiritual and moral convictions; these are powerful influences in a person’s life.

Even someone who only pretended to be a Christian, like Gina Welch, discovered the incredible healing and supportive power of community. But it isn’t because of something Gina Welch discovered during her two years at Thomas Road Baptist Church that I am talking about community in this article. She isn’t the reason “community” is one of our four primary values at Bridgeway Church here in Oklahoma City. Our beliefs on this matter are what they are because of what we read in Scripture. And there is no better place for us to look to find support for Christian community than in Hebrews 10:23-25.

“23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

This passage not only describes the necessity of Christian community and what our responsibilities are to each other as followers of Jesus, but it also serves as a standing rebuke, albeit a loving rebuke, to the growing numbers of professing Christians who think it is entirely permissible for them to say they follow Christ while they consistently refuse to gather regularly with other Christians and to put themselves under the leadership of Elders and Pastors in a particular local church.

Back in 2005 George Barna wrote a book titled, Revolution. His thesis is that one can be a Christ-loving, Bible-believing, soul-winning, God-exalting Christian without any formal involvement in or connection with a local “church”. The absence of the latter, be it noted, is not because of circumstances beyond your control. It’s not that some people, because of geographic isolation or persecution or other factors, cannot find or plant or become involved in a local church. The Revolution is a movement of people who easily could but refuse to do so, believing that for them, at any rate, true spirituality and authentic obedience to God and a genuine, thriving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is possible only by forsaking membership in, support of, and allegiance to a local congregation of believers.

This text stands as a firm and unequivocal refutation of that horribly misguided and unbiblical notion. So I’m going to devote several articles to the unpacking and application of this passage. I hope you find it helpful.