Life-Transforming Worship
The local church consists of born-again Christians who have been made new by the power of Christ. We have been made holy, we have been counted righteous, and we are the redeemed saints who have been forgiven of our sins. Our gathering together week by week is pointedly distinct from anything else in this world. Every local body specifically gathers in order to worship Christ through the preaching of His Word, singing praises to His name, petitioning Him in prayer, partaking in the Lord’s Supper, observing the ordinance of baptism, and fellowshipping together around the Scripture. It is for the praise of Christ and the encouraging of each other in the Lord which is why we gather. We have been made holy before God by the power of the Gospel, therefore we worship the Lord!
Understanding these foundational points moves us forward into seeing the local church as a purposeful gathering, a purposeful body. When members are joined together properly it “makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:16b).” A local church is not stagnant, if it is, then it is not functioning as a faithful body. Congregations which are submitting to Christ are growing in love before Him learning more of the Lord and living with greater faithfulness for the praise of His name. We who have been made holy are seeking to live with greater holiness day in and day out. There should be genuine spiritual growth in the life of a local church. This is not simply another surface-level cursory meeting over the course of another week. No, brothers and sisters, this is the life-transforming worship of Christ our King whereby we are spurred forward by the Christ working through His saints encouraging us from the living Word of God!
Walking Together Deeply
The temptation for many churches is to glance past the deeper heart issues of sanctification. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with discussing the peripheral matters of life as a church family. There is nothing wrong with comparing how your gardens are doing and sharing tips together. The issue comes in whenever we never get beyond that point to deeper matters. If we only talk about “this and that” and never get down to the real matters of our soul, then we are not doing the work of Christ in totality. James tells us:
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” -James 5:16
James is calling us to walk the path of sanctification together. Why would we confess our sins to each other? We do not confess to one another in order to gain the eternal forgiveness of God. Christians have already been forgiven by the Lord (Ephesians 4:32). No, we are confessing our sins to each other, sharing our sin struggles, because there is real power and health in walking together as we are seeking to be sanctified by Christ. I need the prayers of the local church and so does every other Christian. We need the encouragement and wisdom of the gathered saints. Absolutely, we rejoice in all of life together (including good gardens). It is vital that we are also shouldering each others burdens together and doing the work of getting our hands dirty in each other’s lives so that we might encourage and spur one another forward in the Lord! This is a deep walk, this is getting past the mere surface level and into soul transformation by the power of Christ.
Practically Lived Out
We are to walk genuinely in the life of the local church together. No one is perfect, save Christ, so any type of a front that we put up trying to make ourselves look perfect is merely a front of hypocrisy. Pursuing sanctification does not mean that each member needs to go to the front and confess that week’s sin struggles to the whole church. It does mean living genuinely and also having at least a couple of saints with whom you can share everything and from whom you can glean wisdom. Perhaps a local church merely needs a couple of people to do something different in order to have deeper conversations to encourage this striving after holiness.
It could start with a teacher or pastor sharing how the text they are covering shaped their life as Christ used it to mortify sin. When someone asks you how your week went, there is nothing wrong with saying it was good. However, if it was hard and you struggled, share that and ask for prayer, then ask how you can pray for the other soul, which takes the time together that much deeper. Maybe somebody in the room just needs to share a prayer request for someone’s salvation in addition to the physical needs on the list. Grabbing a couple of books on personal issues of sanctification like fear, anxiety, or anger could be helpful.1 Whatever the case, walking more deeply, worshipping more biblically, and fellowshipping with greater purpose into each other’s soul will yield growth in the Lord together. May we each pursue this glorious calling of the local church steadfastly together as we seek His praise!
Sources
1 At the congregation I pastor we have found this booklet to be a tremendous blessing:
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