How My Thinking Changed: The Centrality of the Local Church

Ever since I became a Christian in high school, the role of the local church has been important to me. I remember spending many hours in the summers when I first began my journey of faith in our church library, compiling statistics about the growth of our church's membership and comparing it to the decline in church attendance. The graph I created before the computer age was simply a poster with neatly drawn lines for membership and attendance, which diverged sharply sometime in the 1940s or 1950s.

Although I did spend hours creating this poster and the calculations that were on it, it only received the most limited attention… I hung it up without permission (I didn’t think about it) so I was quickly instructed to take it down.

As I grew in faith and my understanding of God’s grace expanded through college and seminary, my concerns about nominalism in the church also grew. Many of the «conversions» in the church began to seem patently false. I became suspicious of the evangelism that generated these inflated numbers and, importantly, of those people who were so confident in their faith yet so passive.

However, during my doctoral studies, about a decade ago, my attention began to focus even more on the topic of the church, especially the centrality of the local church. I remember one conversation that made an impression on me, with a friend who worked in parachurch ministry.

He replied with typical honesty and openness, «I don’t really get anything out of the rest of the ministry.» I asked, «Have you thought about joining a church?» Genuinely surprised, with a naive laugh, he replied,

«"Join a church? I don't really know why I should do it. I know what I'm here for, and these people are just slowing me down.".

«They’re slowing me down»—these words resonated in my mind. My mind was rapidly filling with various thoughts, but all I said was a simple question:

«"Didn't you think that if you teamed up with these people, even though they might slow you down, you could help them speed up? Did you think that this might be part of God's plan for them and for you?"»

The conversation continued, but a critical part of my own thinking had already been done. God intends to use us in each other’s lives—even at what sometimes seems like a spiritual cost to us.

At the same time, my studies of Puritanism opened the door to the developing theological debates about church order in the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. I was particularly interested in the «Great Debate» at the Westminster Assembly. I was impressed by the position of some of the «Independents» or «Congregationalists» who insisted that pastoral authority should be linked to pastoral relationships. Their arguments for the local church being the highest authority for matters of discipline and doctrine seemed to me to be biblically sound (see Matt. 18:17; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2; Gal. 2; 2 Tim. 4). The role of both the pastor and the members of the church began to take on new meaning in my understanding of how the average Christian is called to live the Christian life.

Then, in 1994, I became senior pastor. Although I had always respected the position of pastor and had already served in that role in two churches, taking on the role of the only recognized senior pastor in the church made me think even more deeply about the importance of the position. Texts like James 3:1 («we will receive greater condemnation») and Hebrews 13:17 («because they must give an account») became even more meaningful to me.

Circumstances have emphasized to me the importance God places on the local church. I remember reading a quote from John Brown, who, in a letter of parental advice to one of his students, who had recently been appointed pastor of a small church, wrote:

«"I know the vanity of your heart, and that it will be displeasing to you that your church is very small in comparison with the churches of your brethren; but I assure you, hear the words of the old man, that when you come to give an account of them to the Lord Christ at His judgment, you will think that you have had enough.".

As I looked at the church I was responsible for, I felt the weight of such an account before God.

This lesson continued to deepen in my weekly ministry. As I preached first the Gospel and then the Epistles, I repeatedly had the opportunity to rethink the idea of Christian love. I pointed out that while some texts do indeed teach that we as Christians are called to love everyone (e.g., 1 Thess. 3:12), many of the passages commonly cited to support this are actually exhortations to love among believers.

I remember my sermon on Matthew 10, in which I emphasized that the words about the cup of cold water were addressed to «the least of my brothers.» After the service, a woman came up to me and said that I had ruined her «life verse»!

For me, these passages about «one another» began to come alive, embodying the theological truths about God’s care for His church. As I preached on Ephesians (chapters 2–3), I realized that the church is the center of God’s plan for revealing His wisdom to heavenly beings. When Paul addressed the Ephesian elders, he referred to the church as that which «God purchased with his own blood» (Acts 20:28). And, of course, on the road to Damascus… Christ so identified with His church that He asked, «Why are you persecuting me?» (Acts 9:4). The church is certainly central to God’s eternal plan, His sacrifice, and His ongoing care.

Perhaps all of the above may seem more like an explanation of the centrality of ecclesiology than a meaning for the local church. However, as I preached the Bible week after week, I have come to realize that Tyndale’s decision to translate «ecclesia» as «church» was a good one!

The importance of the relationships that make up the local church is precisely the environment in which our faith learning finds its embodiment in life.

Love is primarily local. Therefore, the local church is a place that claims to embody this love for the whole world to see. Jesus taught his disciples in John 13:34-35:

«A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.».

I have seen friends and family turn away from Christ because they found this or that local church to be a terrible place. But I have also seen those same friends and family come to Christ by observing the love that Jesus taught and lived—the selfless love for one another that He demonstrated and that appeals to natural human attraction. Thus, the church, as the loudspeaker of the Word, has become even more central to my understanding of evangelism and how we should pray and plan our evangelistic efforts.

The church has become more important in my understanding of how we should recognize true conversion in others, and how we can have confidence in our own conversion. I remember being deeply struck by the words of 1 John 4:20-21 as I was preparing to preach:

«If someone says, »I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”.

We see a similar message in James 1-2. This love does not seem optional; it is the main sign of true faith.

Lately, reflecting on the importance of the church has led me to an even deeper appreciation for church discipline—both formative and corrective. If we truly rely on each other in our local churches, then discipline must be a part of our spiritual growth. And if we are to see the kind of discipline described in the New Testament, then we must not only know one another but also be committed to one another, allowing others to know us and help us along the way.

We must also cultivate trust in authority. All practical aspects of trust in authority in marriage, family, and church are formed locally… Thus, the realization of this truth is probably at the very heart of divine grace that restores our relationship with God—a relationship with authority and love at the same time.

In general, I understand why Christians in the past considered skipping church services to be a serious and dangerous thing. And I think I can see how damaging it began to be on many levels when the disconnect between membership and church attendance became apparent. The shift from a church-wide decision to a private matter—«it’s none of our business»—has wreaked havoc both on churches themselves and on the lives of many who once attended them.

Now I have more questions in my head: questions about seminaries and «Christian leaders» who are in different places every weekend, about pastors who don’t understand the importance of the local church, and about the faithful who wander like disappointed consumers from one church to another. God willing, the next decade will be as exciting as the last.