The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, subject to church discipline, and scatter to fulfill the great commandment and the great commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy.

August 16, 2014 Apologia Radio Interview:

I joined the fine folks at Apologia Radio to discuss the importance of the local church, being under the authority of elders, as well as the marks of a true church (at this link).

Let’s be honest. Attending a service at a new Church can be more than a little intimidating. Actually, sometimes, it can be downright scary. Yet if we have a general idea about what we might encounter, much of the unnecessary fear can be eliminated.

Let me just say that it is definitely worth the effort to find a good Church home. The fact is, God never intended any individual believer to live the Christian life in isolation. We were never meant to “do Christianity” by ourselves. The Bible tells us that the members of the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

WE NEED ONE ANOTHER

It is true to say that God saves each of us individually but He immediately sets each of us as Christians in a family, called “the Body of Christ” and in a visible expression of it called the local Church. This is where we can be equipped, nourished and strengthened in our faith and is the primary place where we can grow in our walk with God as disciples of Christ. Its also a place where we can use the gifts God has given us to help and serve others. Being a member of a local Church is an indispensible part of God’s intended will for each individual Christian.

A HIGH PRIORITY FOR CHRIST’S TRUE DISCIPLES

As followers of Christ, our lives should be built around the commands of Christ. As the Lord of the Church, through His Apostles, Christ summons His people to gather to worship Him together each Lord’s day, in the assembly of the saints. In obedience to Christ, participation in the weekly gathering of the saints on the Lord’s day needs to be a very high priority and focus.

Why?

Although there are many benefits for us in our assembling together, the chief reason for doing so is because He tells us to.

Hebrews 10:24-25 says:

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 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.”

As the return of Christ draws near we are told to gather together “all the more.” This being the case, is it not right that Sunday morning Church becomes the first thing scheduled on our weekly calendars and not merely something that may happen if we can fit it in, after scheduling all sorts of other activities?

The answer, of course, is “Yes.” This is both the duty and delight of His people, if indeed Christ is Lord in more than name only. As God’s beloved children we can trust that He has only the best of intentions in instructing us to gether together to worship Him, to hear His word, fellowship with His people, and to partake of His supper. These in fact are the very ‘means of grace’ He has ordained to bless, feed, protect, nurture and beautify His precious bride.

JUST A THOUGHT….

If we really think about it, part of our Sunday worship could even be the fact that we plan ahead and seek to get a good night of sleep the night before (Saturday night). That way, our minds can be in the best possible shape to be ready and attentive to listen to His word as it is ministered in the service. I realize that this is not always possible for many different reasons outside of our hands (e.g. our next door neighbor decides to throw a loud party until the early hours of the morning), but nevertheless, it is something well worth thinking about as true disciples of Christ. As much as it depends on us, each of us should do all that we can to regard worship on the Lord’s day as special, set aside, different, unique and holy – in a word, “sacred.”

Our purpose in meeting together is to worship our great God, to be equipped and strengthened by the word of God, and to serve and encourage one another as disciples of Christ.

Because of these convictions, you are likely to see the following features in a Sunday worship service at the King’s Church:

We start with a call to worship. A passage from the Bible is read and we are exhorted to worship our great God, in spirit and truth.

Then we enter a time of praise and worship as we come into God’s presence with singing, celebrating who He is and His amazing grace towards us in the gospel. Our music is contemporary in style as we sing both new songs as well as more familiar hymns.

We then include a short time to welcome our first time guests and make announcements.

We then take a few moments to greet one another as we prepare to listen to the word of God.

Our worship continues as we hear a portion of the Bible read to us and then through preaching, its meaning and life application is made clear to us. We call this “expository preaching” and it constitutes the main part of our service.

What exactly is expositional preaching? A sermon is expositional if its content and intent are controlled by the content and intent of a particular passage of Scripture. In other words, the preacher says what the passage says, drawing out the intended meaning of the author, and that the sermon accomplishes in his listeners exactly what God is seeking to accomplish through the chosen passage of his Word.

To aid us in our study of God’s word, outlines of the sermons are normally provided.

Our worship continues as we give in the offering to honor God and support the work of the local church as well as mission projects locally and around the world.

We receive communion together as a church family usually on the second and fourth Sunday morning’s of each month. Prayer and personal ministry is available.

Our Sunday morning service lasts approximately 90 minutes.

Just a word on Bible translation. Our generation is so blessed. In contrast to former generations where access to the word of God was very rare, there are many good Bible translations available to us in the English language today. How we thank God for this. It is simply a fact of history to say that many have paid the ultimate price (forfeiting their very lives) so that we would have access to the word of God in our native tongue. Yet now, because there are so many translations available to us, if the version used from the pulpit is not the same one we have brought to the service it is often difficult to follow a preacher’s sermon. Therefore, it may be helpful to know that we mainly use the English Standard Version of the Bible (ESV) in our services.

We hope the above comments are helpful to you. By the way, you can come in casual or smart clothes – either is fine with us. We look forward to seeing you at one of our services very soon.

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation” (Ps. 111:1).

Rick Phillips writes:

One of the more popular features on our church website (www.spcgreenville.org) is the live video webcast that allows people to watch our worship services on the Lord’s Day as they are taking place. We are delighted to provide this, especially for members who are shut-ins, parents who are home with sick children, and similar situations. I recently heard of a member who was able to watch one of our services on his smart phone when he was stuck in a power outage. There are a surprising number of people who view our services over the internet and we hope it is a blessing to them all. We are particularly pleased if non-Christians are able to hear God’s Word and be encouraged to join us in the flesh.

For all the blessings of this kind of technology, there are some important limitations to video worship of which Christians should be aware and which call for us to make a wise use of this resource. In short, our live webcast is designed for those who are not able to come to church, not as a substitute for those who would otherwise come to church. With this in mind, let me point out some reasons why we should greatly prefer attending church in person, along with some suggestions for our practice.

1. Our physical presence is essential to full participation in worship and in the life of the church. When the Bible urges us “to meet together” (Heb. 10:25), this involves our physical as well as our spiritual presence. We are not meeting with the church if the church cannot see us! Jesus said, he would be present “where two or three are gathered in my name” (Mt. 18:20). His meaning undoubtedly had the normal sense of physical presence with a shared heart. This is why we should never provide for home video participation in the sacraments and why the elders of the church meet in person rather than merely over the internet (notice that Matthew 18:20 occurs in a passage dealing with church discipline).

2. We need to come to church in order to contribute our gifts and graces to fellow Christians. The Lord accomplishes a number of important things through the weekly gathering of the church. For instance, the spiritual gifts of each member are employed in a wide variety of ways, each of which are essential. Paul wrote that “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom. 12:5). He added that our spiritual gifts are provided to us “for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7). Therefore, your fellow Christians require your presence: to serve, encourage, listen, support, laugh, hug, and love. We gather on Sunday as a church community, and this requires us to commune! So while video church is a help for exceptional situations, it should never become anything like the norm for a Christian.

3. There is an authoritative dimension to the preaching of God’s Word that involves physically “sitting under” a real and living pulpit ministry. It is a blessing to be able to hear the Word of God even if we are not able to attend church. Yet physically attending the sermon makes a significant difference to the way God ministers his Word. God has ordained for the Bible to be preached through living heralds and ambassadors, and the experience of sitting under a pulpit ministry integrally involves being physically present. Preaching is a living, communal event, and the preacher needs to see and spiritually interact with the congregation, just as the congregation needs to see and spiritually interact with the preacher. It is a blessing to have great preaching available via a number of electronic means and I would encourage you to do so, but none is a substitute from sitting in person under the personal ministry of your own pastor together with the church of which you are a member. This is why I am so opposed to “satellite churches” where the celebrity preacher’s video is beamed into a congregation where he is not physically present. This is also why you should especially attend to the preaching of your own minister, even if more gifted preachers can be heard on radio or the internet. Preaching is an important part of the pastor’s spiritual leadership and sitting under the preaching is an essential way to obey Hebrews 13:17 – “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.”

4. In worship, we need to give our full attention to the Lord, which is unlikely when we are not physically present in the church sanctuary. The sanctuary experience is designed to draw our full attention to the Lord and to his Word. Outside of the sanctuary and especially if we are alone, we simply are not likely to give ourselves wholly to God in our worship. This is similar to my concern for those using their tablets or smart phones in place of physical Bibles. There is nothing wrong with an electronic version of the Scriptures, but I know that my own smart phone is loaded with opportunities for multi-tasking and other electronic distractions from God and his worship. Is there anything wrong with checking your emails and texts during the sermon? Yes, there is. Psalm 111:1 says: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.”

As Christians we should be the last to lose our sense of the whole person as God has made us, and we should not allow technology to truncate our view of the human person. Therefore, while we are glad to provide live video streaming for exceptional situations, let us not make the exception the norm and let us not permit technology to dictate our spiritual experience in worship.

Let me conclude with some suggestions related to the topic of video worship:

1) When traveling out of town on a Lord’s Day, make every effort to attend a local church in person rather than watch your home church via the internet. All Christians are part of the universal church as well as their particular church, and these are good opportunities for us to express and experience our broader Christian participation. God uses connections made in these settings to bring us together for his work. Even if there is no church that you would prefer, you should go to the best option. Experiencing “bad worship,” however we may define it, or “different preaching,” will nonetheless impart wisdom and perspective. Whatever the experience, we should generally prefer actual physical worship in company with fellow believers to a video experience even of our own church.

2) If you say to yourself, “I’ll just watch it on the internet,” instead of physically coming to church, you are cheating yourself and, more importantly, your fellow believers. This urge (which probably is more associated with evening worship) should be avoided as much as possible.

3) When attending a large worship event or conference where video screens are used to project the preacher’s image, sit up front where you can look at the speaker directly. I find that where there is a big screen my eyes naturally drift away from the actual person to the video image. This lessens the sense of a live encounter with a living preacher and we should avoid it.

I hope this counsel will enable us to use God’s gifts wisely and responsibly. Christians should always be on guard for unintended consequences and for opportunities of the devil (Eph. 4:27). The loss to the church of the physical presence of the people of God is too terrible to consider. Let us not permit technology to turn us from disciples into consumers, and from a church community to a mere resource provider.