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The Necessity of Membership in a Local Church

Some say, “I don’t need a church to be a Christian”.  Are they right?
           

Ecclesiastes 4:12, MSG

             The Sequoiadendrum Giganteum is one of the largest trees in the world. The largest recorded Sequoia tree measured 311 feet in height and twenty-seven feet in diameter. The longest living Sequoia is believed to be in excess of 3500 years old.

            Sequoia trees are incredibly strong. They can withstand hurricane-force winds that blow in from the Pacific Ocean. The bark of a Sequoia Tree is fibrous, furrowed, and can measure up to three feet thick. The Sequoia’s bark can protect the tree from fire and burrowing insects.

            Sequoias are always found together in groves. Despite the incredible heights a single tree can reach the root systems of Sequoias are rather shallow. However, the roots intertwine with one another thereby offering strength to each other. Additionally, the roots share important bacteria and moisture that helps each tree stay healthy and disease free.

            The Sequoia tree offers a lesson to each of us as Christians. No person can go it alone over the long haul. In the simplest of terms, we need one another. To borrow the words of the writer of Ecclesiastes: “A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped” (4:12, MSG). Strength truly is found in numbers.

            This adage is a good word to those who say, “I don’t need the Church to be a Christian.” Nothing can be further from the truth. More people have fallen away from the core of the Christian faith because they had no one else to lean upon for strength or to correct them when in error.

            I once heard it said that Christianity is personal but it is not private. Christ offers us a personal, one-to-one relationship with him. Jesus is also the head of the Body, the Church. Each member is intricately connected to and dependent upon the whole.

            So, to all of my Christian friends, I say, “Hang on to each other. Don’t let go. We might as long learn how to get along and help one another now because one day will find us together for eternity.”

 
Photo ©2006 Walter Siegmund.  This file is licensed under the Creative Commons
license.

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