Day 17 | The Local Church

Today I am thankful for the local church.

Without going through my whole history with church, it's safe to say that after I came to faith I didn't see an expression of the local church that I thought, Hey! This is what I see in the Bible. I was sorely disappointed with church. I thought that maybe God had given up on Sunday mornings and people meeting in church buildings. The ideas of house churches and bible studies made my heart soar and I was sure that's where God was, but where were those house churches? I didn't really know. So, I settled for bible studies. I wanted to be with believers who really wanted to pursue Jesus and love others, but I had never experienced that in a church building.

At the end of my freshman year of college, a really wonderful lady named Erica Parker expressed the importance of the local church and having people who were at different stages and ages of life pouring into my life and challenging me to grow in Christ. I took what she said to heart and went with all my skepticism to visit Bull Street Baptist Church (BSBC) with my friend Josh.

I can really only describe my first Sunday at BSBC as coming home. The music was theologically rich, and truthful! I sought to find fault in the pastor's teaching, looking for him to shy away from biblical truth or to give his own opinion. He didn't do those things. He sought to teach the Word faithfully, verse-by-verse. He wanted his congregation to understand the Word of God and he wanted them to apply it to their lives. Honestly, having been fed milk for so long, my head hurt after I left service. I had to be constantly present, listening, engaged. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and I wanted more. I had sat with some other college students, but that first Sunday, a dear woman came up and introduced herself to me, Sandra Sammons. She remembered me the next week and genuinely cared about me. I mean, where had I just stumbled into?

The following Fall quarter, I became a member. During membership class they informed me I would have to be baptized. HAVE TO? I wanted to! I had wanted to be baptized since I came to faith in high school, but didn't think I could since I had been baptized as a baby. I thought the joy of being baptized as an adult wasn't an option. I didn't even realize there was a difference! Guys, had they let me, I would have dove into that water. I was so excited. For five years I had thought that I couldn't be baptized and here they were telling me that I could, and in fact I had to in order to join their fellowship! HAH. Okay, twist my arm.

Fast forward. This same congregation loved me, prayed for me, supported me through college, and sent me out to the Philippines twice. We served together in Savannah and sharpened one another. The people of Bull Street are my family. Then in 2013, I graduated college and they sent me to seminary!

Now began my first time trying to find a church after realizing that God was not only still present in church, but that He calls us to a people. He calls us to become apart of the Church, which is expressed in smaller gatherings of believers in the local church. We cannot operate solo. So, where to next?

Well, once in Raleigh, I prayed that God would bring me to a church that said their heart was the Gospel. You can read more about what I was thinking back in this post. Two days after I wrote that post, Tony Merida taught a sermon from Galatians. A few days after he preached that sermon, my friend Catie Thomas had been praying with me and encouraged me to listen to this sermon. God answered my prayer.

Over the last two and a half years, the body at Imago Dei Church has continued to grow my love, understanding and experience of the local church. Imago Dei is very different than BSBC. Imago Dei is turning 5 this year. BSBC is celebrating their 125th year anniversary this year. Imago Dei is packed full with seminary students and families with babies (SO MANY BABIES) from all over. BSBC is packed full of SCAD students, families and a lot of people over the age of 65 who have lived in Savannah their whole lives. But even though they are vastly different, the message and the mission is the same. In fact, it's the same message and mission that the Church has been preaching for 2,000 years.

My Imago Dei family has walked with me through some of the hardest years of my adult life. They have supported and encouraged me and pointed me to Christ continually. I'm pretty sure I've walked up sobbing to at least 4 of the pastors now, and while they have the look of shock and uncertainty that most men do when approached by a weeping woman, they have been faithful to hear me out and encourage me in the truth.

These churches have gathered around the same message that has allowed us to live and interact as family. That is the message of the Gospel. That is the message of God and His great love. We were made to be in relationship with Him. But instead we are dead in our sin, weak and unable to come into God's presence. We fill that deep, eternal longing for something better with temporal, foolish things that never satisfy. But God, being rich in mercy, sent Jesus Christ to call us to life. God in the flesh, Jesus, came (not theoretically, but in reality) and lived the perfect life. He was truly the only good man to ever walk the earth. He was tempted as we are, but yet without sin! Even still, He was sentenced to death to fulfill God's perfect plan to establish a people for Himself. He died, bearing our sin. That death, the one we were dead in because of sin, He brings out of that and brings us into a new life. He does that by the power of His resurrection. Death could not hold Him. He rose to life and invites us into that through faith.

We look forward to the day when we too with be resurrected and be with Him. Through His atoning work, we will be able to be in the fullness of the presence of God, as a people! 

Our mission now is to live in light of that glorious truth by the power of the Spirit (yeah, He sent His Spirit to dwell within believers!) to share that message, to walk in the good works that He has given us in advance, to love, to be merciful and gracious, to be wise, to follow where He leads. Our mission is to share and live the Gospel, in community. We are His people, advancing His kingdom and it's a beautiful thing, because when He comes again, He has promised that He is building a people for Himself from every tongue, tribe and nation! We will gather to worship Him.

So when we meet weekly, we are worshipping in praise of what He's done, what He's doing and with a deep longing for what He will do!

There's a lot more I could say about the local church, but I'll finish with this:
If you call yourself a follower of Christ, get yourself in a local church. If you call yourself a Christian, but never spend time with other Christians (and even hate other Christians), you are most likely not actually a Christian and you likely have made up who God is in your head. I would encourage you to spend time with believers, read the Bible and go to a church where they not only teach the Bible verse-by-verse, but equip you to learn and study the Bible for yourself. Not all churches are good churches, but hunt until you find one where the Gospel is being preached.