Why Church Matters

Embedding our own households and families in the household of God at once decenters our tribe, with its tendency to become an idol, and simultaneously centers us in the only community that can sustain us: the Triune God.

—James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, 125

One Field

Different modes of external worship are as the furrows of the field; the field is none the less one because of the marks of the plough.

—Charles Haddon Spugeon

The Congregational Choir

“The congregation is the church’s first choir.”

—John Calvin

The most important musical group in the church is the congregation.

—RM

Homegrown Worship

When missionaries came to our lands they brought not only the seed of the Gospel, but their own plant of Christianity, flower pot included!  So, what we have to do is to break the flower pot, take out the seed of the Gospel, sow it in our own cultural soil, and let our own version of Christianity grow.

—D.T. Niles (1908-1970), from Sri Lanka

Confident Access

Psa. 15:1    O LORD, who shall sojourn in Your tent?
Who shall dwell on Your holy hill?

Apart from being in Christ, God’s tent is not a safe place for sinners.

—Matt Mason, “The Worship Leader and Singing,” in Doxology and Theology: How the Gospel Forms the Worship Leader, 197

 

Gospel Praise

The proclamation of God’s praises is always promoted by the teaching of the gospel; for as soon as God becomes known to us, His boundless praises sound in our hearts and in our ears.

—John Calvin on Hebrews 2:12

Unconsciously Catechized

Child to pastor: “Why do we say ‘The grass withers…’ every week?”

“Because of that question.”

—Ron Rienstra