This week I have been serving at my church’s weeklong kids camps (what was known as “Vacation Bible School” when I was growing up.) For someone who is naturally an introvert, the hours of interactions with hundreds of kids can be emotionally draining. However, in His kindness, God always provides the energy and fortitude that I need to serve Him and be an ambassador of His love to the smallest members of our congregation as well as the many community members who attend. While this service area may not be naturally in my wheelhouse, it is one that I am honored to participate in because I know from personal experience how God can use seeds of Scripture planted in childhood to draw a person to Him. A firm foundation of biblical truth is a remarkable gift to give to kids.
This year this camp came at an interesting time because I have been doing some extensive reading on the issue of ecclesiology (the study of the Church.) It is a compelling dynamic to be reading about God’s purposes for the Church universal and for local congregations, while at the same time spending many hours each day at the place where I personally experience His purposes being worked out. It is a reminder that the Church universal as well as the local body of believers are generous gifts from our Heavenly Father so that our pursuit of Him is not done in isolation, but in community. In His graciousness, God calls us to be part of a local church that teaches His Word, applies His commands, and seeks to represent Him well in the different spheres of influence that He has placed congregants in. As one book reminded me, “By God’s designs, the church is an assembly of redeemed worshippers who together are growing in Christlike holiness.”* The church has a sacred function and as it performs this function, the lives of its members should more closely resemble the life of their Savior.
What my intensive time of service this week and my reading have both reminded me is that neglecting to actively participate in our local body of believers is detrimental to both our personal relationship with God and our growth in Him. Additionally, when we fail to be a committed member of the Body of Christ as expressed in the ministry of our local congregation, we cause injury to its witness and its outreach. Our church’s impact on the community will be inhibited when we don’t participate as we ought.
God could have used a variety of analogies to describe the people that He called to Himself. One that He uses most frequently is that of a family. He calls believers His children and as such, all who trust in Him are brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us never overlook what a treasure this is, that we are surrounded by those who love us because Christ first loved them (I Jn 4:19). Let us never forget the joy of pursuing Christ in community with others who share the same goal and have the same aim. And let us not neglect to, collectively and committedly, expend ourselves in service so that many more can become part of God’s family.
*John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth. (Crossway, 2017, p. 777).
