"Is it possible to be a committed, growing Christian and not be an active part of His body, the local church?"
Since the name of the Bible study is "Your Church Experiencing God Together", I'm going with "no" as the answer to this one. And I'm pretty confident of the answer, even though we haven't met to have our discussion yet.
Is it possible to be a Christian and not be an active part of a local church? Absolutely. Our relationship with God is individual, and we can be certain of our eternal destination without any specific connections to a church.
That being said, one simply cannot be committed or growing outside the context of Christian community. Here are some reasons it seems impossible to me:
1. We can't be challenged in our blind spots of obedience and character development on our own. I have a certain opinion and view of myself that isn't exactly objective. Pet sins, character flaws, etc. In a vacuum, I can do damage control just fine. Among other Christians living out an example of growth and challenging me to press deeper into God for transformation, I will grow.
2. I only relate to God in my way. I need to interact with other Christians on a regular basis to learn more about God. How does He speak to you? What have you learned about Him? What has He revealed to you?
3. We can't learn to obey all the "one another" commands in Scripture without another. And without those large chunks of Scripture in my life, I'm ignoring lots of Christ's very own words. Consistent disobedience is NOT a characteristic of a committed and growing Christian.
What about you? What reasons have you found for staying connected to the body of Christ? And what have you learned from the experience of being in relationship with God's people?
If you're not part of a group of like-minded Christians in community, what's keeping you from making the commitment?
God's kingdom will expand through the obedient actions of His devoted children. Let's all work toward that goal together!
Jenni, just the gentle push I needed. Thank you for your words!
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, God is definitely the only way that transformation can be accomplished...by really going after experiencing Him and His power in my life for real. Having said that, the only environment I have found real transformation to occur in my life is iron sharpening iron in the body of Christ.
ReplyDeleteLove that study! We did it several years ago as a whole church.