Let me take you to a moment in my living room, almost a year ago. It’s Wednesday afternoon. The furniture has been pushed to the side, replaced with lights, cables, microphones, and a video camera. Intentional design has gone into the backdrop, replacing pictures with less distracting artwork. Julie gets the camera shot perfect. We do an audio check. All good. She presses play and heads to her corner of the house where she and the kids try not to be heard on the video. I look at the camera, I take a breath, and begin my sermon. I’m a few minutes in and the air conditioner kicks on, and my mic is now picking up the air from the vent right above it. I stop and turn off the A/C, jotting down a note to turn it off next week before I start recording my sermon. I take a breath and begin my sermon again. For close to 12 weeks, I would record the sermon on Wednesday, edit it on Thursday, upload it to YouTube on Friday, and then watch it “live” on Sunday mornings. I learned a lot about my preaching on those online only Sundays. Some time after the cat knocked over the camera in the middle of recording my sermon and before the sermon I preached where I forgot to press the record button on the audio software, I remember wrapping up a sermon and saying to Julie, “This is not what church was intended to be”. Church is intended to be in the presence of other redeemed brothers and sisters in Christ, worshiping the risen Savior through singing, the preaching of God’s Word, and prayer. Church is a gathering of people, not a place or an experience. Church is about the body of Christ, not our preferences. I could keep going but the point has been made. We need to continue pushing towards a Biblical understanding of the church. Ephesians 2:19-22 states,

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

If there is anything we have learned over the last year I hope it is this: we need the church! Not just the Sunday morning gathering, but the weekly interaction with other believers. The Christian life was not designed to be lived in isolation, but in community with other children of God. We belong together. If you are not a member already, I want to invite you to become a member of Grace Life Church. Grace Life Church Membership is birthed out of our love for the local church body and her individual members whom we hope will experience the fullness of grace and joy found in Jesus Christ. A church member is someone who is formally recognized as a Christian and a part of Christ’s universal body. Jonathan Leeman writes in his book Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus: “Church membership is a formal relationship between a Church and a Christian characterized by the church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s discipleship and the Christian’s submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.” Church Membership is not about status. You don’t get extra benefits and it doesn’t earn you more control. Membership recognizes God’s saving grace in your life and your desire to grow in His Word through intentional discipleship in the context of a local church. It’s a commitment to the entire body of Christ that you will be a contributor and not a consumer. Membership is recognizing the Biblical responsibilities given to a congregation and taking those matters seriously. Church Membership is committing to the local church for the glory of God, knowing that the local church is committed to your sanctification. There are two qualifications for being a church member in the New Testament: Salvation and Baptism (Acts 2:41). There is freedom to pursue ways to determine if someone has been redeemed. It is the responsibility of the Elders to protect the people of the church and to make sure wolves do not sneak in and destroy (1 Peter 5:2-12). The first step in becoming a member of Grace Life is to attend The Intro this Sunday, March 7th. The Intro will tell you more about the Vision, Mission, and Values of our Grace Life Church. You can register here, or in the app. My prayer as we move into the next few months is that we will be a church transformed by the Gospel of Jesus, committed more intentionally to the people of our church and to the advancement of the Gospel, and that we will not forsake the assembly of the believers (Hebrews 10:25). By His Grace, Pastor Matt