God as Father - Church as Mother: Why Revival Begins in the Pew, Not on the Couch
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24–25 (NKJV)
Is it possible to be a mature and healthy Christian believer and not be a deeply devoted member of a local church?
If you had asked me that question ten years ago, I would have likely said yes. We were technically members of the local mega-church in our city, but our attendance was sporadic at best. We had no deep Christian community in our lives, and we certainly weren’t using our time and talents to serve the Church in any meaningful way. I knew the command of Scripture not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but my heart responded with an abundance of great justifications. I told myself:
I wasn’t forsaking the church—I was just in a busy season. God would surely understand my need for rest. Once things slowed down, I’d get committed.
The church just means any group of Christian brothers and sisters. As long as I have fellowship with other believers, it doesn’t matter that I’m not committed to a traditional local congregation.
I don’t need the local church to be a healthy and mature Christian. The foundation of the Christian life is my personal time with God. As long as I spend time with Him daily, I’m good to go.
But all those excuses began to crumble in 2021, when God shattered my comfy and lethargic version of Christianity and brought personal revival into my life after a difficult season of spiritual self-examination. During that time, I put aside the self-help gurus and popular spiritual teachers of our day and began supplementing my time in the Word with the writings of the great saints from past generations—men I now refer to as the old dead guys. I was searching for truth. Searching to see if these convictions stirring in me were from God. Searching to see if the Christianity I observed all around me was the real thing. And when it came to the local church—searching to see if all my justifications were really just excuses.
As I searched the Scriptures and studied those old dead guys, I began to see that for the majority of church history, there was a version of Christianity being practiced that was radically different from what I was seeing around me. My eyes opened to my tragic neglect of many aspects of the Christian life. Conviction set in across many areas—especially as it pertained to my relationship, or lack thereof, with the local church.
Slowly, God began to renew my mind during that season. I realized I had gotten something terribly wrong: the foundation and headquarters of the Christian life was not, in fact, the couch in my living room where I did my quiet times each day—it was the local church. The local church was the centerpiece of the Christian life. God designed our faith to be lived out within the context of deep community with other believers. As I studied the Word and examined the Christianity of past generations, my Western, individualistic version of Christianity that allowed me to neglect the local church and live in isolation was collapsing.
In light of this new revelation, I knew something had to change. God was calling me to repent of my sin—the sin of neglecting His Church, the very body of Christ Himself. To be clear, He wasn’t calling me to merely be more consistent at sitting in a pew on Sundays. No, He was calling me to something deeper—to surrender my life to Him – through the local church. To orient my entire life around Him – through my commitment and service to the local church. My eyes were opened to see that this had actually been the model of Christianity for nearly all of church history until about 150 years ago. For the saints of old, the idea of a Christian detached from the local church would have been preposterous. Consider the words of Augustine:
“For outside the church they [one’s sins] have no remission. For it is the church in particular that has received the earnest, the Holy Spirit, apart from whom no sins receive remission...the deserter of the Church cannot be in Christ, since he is not among Christ’s members…for he cannot have God as his Father who does not have the Church for his mother.”
Those words of Augustine sound almost heretical to modern ears, but he was not alone. Martin Luther echoed this conviction:
“Outside this Christian Church there is no salvation or forgiveness of sins, but everlasting death and damnation; even though there may be a magnificent appearance of holiness.”
John Calvin, in his commentary on Ephesians, writes:
“The church is the common mother of all the godly, which bears, nourishes, and governs in the Lord both kings and commoners; and this is done by the ministry. Those who neglect or despise this order want to be wiser than Christ. Woe to their pride!”
In his book Disciplines of a Godly Man, modern-day teacher Kent Hughes concludes:
“So we conclude that church hitchhikers, ecclesiastical wanderers, spiritual Lone Rangers, and Christians who disdain membership are aberrations in the history of the Christian church and are in grievous error.”
Are these men saying that membership in the local church is a prerequisite for salvation? Are they making commitment to a local body a “work” required to earn God’s grace? No. Each of them held firmly to salvation by grace alone. But I believe their logic runs like this: The Christian life was designed by God to be lived within the local church, where believers share deep fellowship as members of one body. The sacraments, nourishment, discipline, and encouragement found within that body are the primary means of grace by which God conforms us to His image (Ephesians 4:7–13). Just as a baby cannot survive apart from its mother’s nourishment and protection, the believer has no life and growth outside the local church. And if this is true, then the Holy Spirit will always lead true believers into deep commitment to a local body. As to the professing believer who has rejected that relationship with the body of Christ, the old dead guys weren’t afraid to ask the logical question—does the Holy Spirit truly dwell within them?
As I wrap up this article, I’m conflicted. There is so much more that burns within me on this topic. For the sake of time, I’ll save those thoughts for another day. For now, I’ll simply say this: It has been nearly five years since God opened my eyes and convicted me in this area. I repented of my foolish and prideful behavior and began searching for a church, and a shepherd, worthy of the devotion I was being called to. My family and I are now deeply committed members of a biblically sound local church. And here’s what I can tell you: It has changed my entire life. It has radically transformed my entire family and our home. I had no idea what I was missing. I cannot begin to describe the richness God has poured into our lives through simple obedience in this area.
Are you hearing the same call I did five years ago? Is He calling you out of isolation and into the fellowship of your brothers and sisters? Or perhaps He’s calling you to move beyond simply attending on Sundays? My friend, listen to that voice. You will never taste the fullness of life in Christ until your entire existence revolves around worship, fellowship, and service—through His Church.
Lastly, for those wondering what a biblically sound church looks like—or perhaps beginning to question the things you are seeing and hearing at your current church—I strongly recommend Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever. It’s a short and powerful read that will transform how you see the church and give you the direction you seek.