We Learn Best Together (11AM)

This morning we begin a seven-week sermon series asking the question, “Why Church?” Each week we will take seriously the thought that is on many minds, “I connect with God by myself, why do I need church?” Making a commitment to a church community is not for the timid, especially in our current cultural climate.

For generations church was an acceptable and respectable place to be seen. Even those who did not believe what the church stood for added their names to the membership roles because doing so increased social status and business success. Not anymore.

Today, while a large percentage of Americans still self-identify as Christian, more and more believe the church is unnecessary. Some even see the Christian Church as a hinderance to social progress, hate-filled, a place to be avoided. Those are conclusions reached by those who misunderstand the Church, and God’s intentions for the Church. Is the Church, including Grace of Christ, imperfect? Yes! But the Church, Grace too, is still God’s chosen organism to bring the hope and love of Jesus to a world desperate for real truth, love, compassion, and community.

This series is not an act of desperation. It is not an attempt to beg, badger, or argue, in order to convince people to come back to, or begin to attend, church. It is meant to be an intentional, scripture-based, communication of God’s desire for the church and our part in it. The entire story of God creating us, rescuing us, calling us, into a relationship with Him, is about “we” not “I”. Christian life is contra-American individualism. Christian life is an invitation to community.