The notion of belonging to a local church having a dramatic impact on a person’s faith is not new. In the early days of the church, the local “body” of Christ worked together and built each other up in order to increase their faith, knowledge, and number of believers as seen in Acts 2:42-47:
“The Fellowship of Believers: They devoted themselves to teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (New International Version)
The same happens today. Belonging to a local church builds faith, knowledge of scripture and increases the number of attendees.
The building of one’s Faith
So, how does it work? Why is it so important? The importance is in the building of one’s faith. By attending the church one learns from the pastor (or whatever the teacher is titled). The pastor teaches ideas and themes based on or directly from scripture. As knowledge grows, understanding of one’s involvement in the church increases leading to tithing and serving.
Through tithing and serving members of the church, you again build their faith and extending from that, begin to impact those around them and their community.
The local church allows believers to have a community, which can hold them accountable as well as a community that can support them through difficult times. The church picks up where one cannot solely exist alone. In a society that constantly goes against the grain of Biblical mandates, the church body can encourage behaviors and encourage beliefs that most will not value.
Churches are not perfect
Churches can have a negative impact – they are made of people who gossip, slander and sin. Yet, when truly involved in a church through serving, tithing and faithfully attending, one can find that while sin still exists, believers can work together for the common goal of growing in their faith and sharing Christ’s love with others; truly what God intended when He designed the local church.’
