Walking into Church — Session Two
New Street Baptist Church-26 July 2020
Welcome to the second week highlights from church since we returned back. We really encourage you to stick with us as we adapt and learn to do things differently (whether at home or at church).
Please comment at the bottom of this page with things you want to share or encourage others with throughout the article. You can do this by hitting the speech bubble.
1 Peter 2: 9–10
9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”.
Prayer Activity
Reflect on the character and names of God. Pray them using the following words: We thank you God that you are…
Something to Share
Alex shares about the difference her faith has made to her in lockdown
Naomi shared from Psalm 78 and how God reassured her about bringing children to worship Jesus
Irene shared another picture and some words of encouragement about how God cares for us
How to walk into church — Session 2
We explored the second session of the Six Steps to Loving Your Church which is helping us understand the purpose of gathering together as a church family.
Before the lockdown, at the weekend, if your garden was a mess you might have invited your friends over to help you. You all get stuck in together, work hard with a good amount of talking and laughing along the way or you may have gone off to the cinema together to catch the latest blockbuster film. You sit together, enjoy the film and then discuss what you saw afterwards.
The question is, which is more like church?
The unintended consequence of a church which has good preaching and worship is that it’s easy to become a spectator or consumer rather than a participant. This morning, we’re going to discover that God actually wants our experience to be more like a group of family and friends coming together with a common purpose and cause.
Building in love
Q. If you had just one sentence to explain why you go to church, what would you say?
Read: 1 Corinthians 13:1–7
Q. Why do you think Paul describes love as the more excellent way?
Q. Look at the different ways in which love is described in verses 4–7. How would these attitudes apply to our behaviour in church?
Read: 1 Corinthians 14:1–12 and 26–43
Q. What is it about prophecy that makes it better than speaking in tongues in church?
Q. How do you think this relates to love in chapter 13?
Read: Hebrews 10:19–25
Q. How do we gain access to God, according to this passage?
Q. Why then do we gather together?
What is Church really about?
It’s easy to make the mistake of carrying over Old Testament language into our understanding of church. Priests, sanctuaries and altars bring to mind the image of a single person making sacrifices in a particular special building so that people could encounter God. The problem is that the New Testament teaches us not to think this way about the gathering of Christians today.
The temple, priests and sacrificial system all foreshadowed what Jesus has now fulfilled through his life, death and resurrection. What Jesus did on the cross means that now we can personally encounter the living God any place, anywhere.That means that when we come to church, we’re not coming primarily to meet with God or to perform special rituals or procedures to gain access to God.
If we can have fellowship and intimate access to God anywhere and everywhere, what then is church?
Church means a gathering or assembly, it’s a Christian get-together. Church is a gathering of everyone who has access to God through the blood of Jesus; we come together simply because we are family and like all families we belong together but also because we need each other.
We’re taught in Hebrews to not give up meeting together so that we can
keep on stirring one another up to love and good deeds.
The one ultimate principle that should drive everything about church is love — love that seeks the good of others rather than myself. We come to church intentionally praying how we can participate in being the Royal Priesthood we read about in 1 Peter 2 where we all minister to one another using the gifts God provides so that we can teach, comfort and encourage one another in our walk with Jesus.
Church is not about me, the experience I have or what I get out of it. Loving church is loving the people who make up our church by seeking to build them up in Christ.
Are you a builder?
Q. Consider your one sentence summary of church. How would you change it in light of what we’ve seen in the Bible?
Many people answer that question with ‘to worship God’. On its own that is not an adequate description of what church is about and why we go there. If our explanation doesn’t extend to loving our brothers and sisters in Christ by building them up in Christ, then we haven’t understood what the Bible teaches us about church. We come together in the presence of God to encourage, teach and comfort one another in Christ.
Q. What might be the symptoms of a consumer or spectator attitude to church?
Q. What might be the fruits of a servant attitude to church?
Hopefully you’re beginning to see the need to move from a view that church is centred largely on ourselves (my personal worship experience) to an understanding that is centred on God and those around us; to see church as a place where we love people by seeking to build them up in Christ.
Assignment for this week
Look for a way to practically serve another person. When we return to normal that might look like getting a coffee for someone, greeting a new person, or helping to pack up. Ring someone up after church. Ask them how their week has been, and ask what you could pray for them.
Pray that God would enlarge your hearts to love each other at church.
Thank him for the church family.
Ready to come back to church? Make sure you book in here: Attend church
We really look forward to seeing you again.
