How many times do we refer to the church we attend as “our church”? Quite often. And yet the church you attend is not your church. Not really.
I’m not going to be “levitical” or “puritanical” about this. I will sometimes say “our church” when referring to the church my family and I worship at — which (as of this writing) is also the one I serve as pastor. But I try to be careful never to say “my church.”
Olney Baptist Church is not “my church,” even though I pastor the church and worship at the church. It was never – and will never be – “my church.” And the church you attend is not your church.
The Apostle Paul made this clear in his letter to his protege Timothy, writing: “[B]ut if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (I Timothy 3:15, NKJV)
According to Paul, the church Timothy served as pastor — indeed, all local churches — were God’s church!
The church you attend should be considered “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
Jesus, in His initial teachings on the church, declared personal ownership of the church, when He told Peter: “… and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18b, NKJV).
The church is Jesus’s church.
Not yours.
Not mine.
It’s Jesus’s church.
Speaking about pastors, Peter writes in his epistle:
The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
I Peter 5:1-4, NKJV
Note that, in verse 4, Peter refers to the “Chief Shepherd” – obviously a reference to Jesus.
Each local church is a local “flock” led by “elders” who are “shepherds” (shepherd being the term we get “pastor” from), but ultimately, all flocks are part of the BIG flock – and all shepherds answer to the CHIEF Shepherd.
Jesus is the Head of HIS church.
All of this is important when it comes to how we approach the churches we attend and the expectations, wishes, needs, wants, and demands we bring to our respective local churches.
If you strive to make the church you attend to be about YOUR wants, needs, and preferences, then you don’t really see the church as Jesus’s church. You see it as yours.
For conscientious men and women of the Christian faith, the local church is (or at least should be) an important part of their lives. The church is a family. As such, people bring their emotions to that church – and they invest their emotions in that church.
But if we’re not careful, we start to make the church more about our emotions and our feelings than we do about serving the Chief Shepherd.
The church doesn’t exist to exalt you and me.
The church exists to exalt Him.
And the more we keep our focus on Him, the better off our churches will be.
