One of the many things that is missing from the concept of church in todays mind is this … community. I see in Scripture that most of the books/letters written in the New Testament were addressed to believers (as in group, not a bunch of individuals) at a certain location. They weren’t as splintered as we are now .. i.e. the church of Salem now in reality consists of many churches. Back then though, believers clung to each other out of both joy and necessity.

Joy because they enjoyed being with each other. Many of the first believers worked every single day, they would gather as believers almost just as often (except usually in the night). They met as a large body and in smaller bodies of believers. They actually liked being with each other. They didn’t do a quick 60-75 minute service and call it good, they lived and ate with each other. Today what we have are self-focused followers wanting only to “get” something from church. I want MY music, MY style, MY version. When “church” is done, then we decide if it was good based on the MY’s.

Necessity because they shared with each other what was needed. They did that knowing they were helping other believers out. They also met, like Matt said, to grow in the faith. One thing I have experienced and seen in life, is that you should not follow Jesus alone. We have to sharpen ourselves up with others. Allow others to really see us and point out the things that do not reflect Jesus. We also as a group get to learn about God through scriptures. We get the opportunity to share love with others. I sit in the back of church often, my reason is to get a hold of people that need to be cared for.

We will never know how to truly care for someone if we don’t know them. We won’t know them until we spend time with them. In my opinion, we hop around to other churches because of 1) we recognize that no church is perfect - therefore I will pick and choose what I want from others and 2) we actually believe we will find a perfect church, so when we get disillusioned we hunt for something we will never find (we will just be disillusioned again).

Like Vin said, you don’t just leave yo mamma because she is different than you. In fact, you almost want to find a group of people that are NOT like you to worship God among. Then you can see other ways of living the faith life out.

Nuff said … for now!

Good question!