Today, I was reminded of a recent article in Ministry & Leadership the magazine of Reformed Theological Seminary titled “Delighting in the Church?”, by Guy Waters. You can read the article when you click here (PDF). The article is adapted from Waters’ book How Jesus Runs the Church (P&R, 2011).

Here is a sample from the article:

According to Scripture, however, membership in the local church is not merely desirable, but necessary. In the New Testament, we see a recurring pattern: the Word is preached, people profess faith, and they gather locally into congregations ruled by Christ through a government He has appointed (Acts 2:47, 14:23; Titus 1:5). Believers are commanded to give due submission to the elders (1 Thessalonians 5:12,13), and the elders are charged with the oversight of believers’ souls (Hebrews 13:17). This set of commands assumes that believers and church leaders have an acknowledged relationship with one another. This relationship comes into existence when a believer commits to join the church. Therefore, when the Scripture calls Christians to delight in the church, it calls them to delight not only in the worldwide church, but also in the local church of which they are members.

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