The Church-Centered Life

Everyone wants balance. Unfortunately, life pulls us in a multitude of directions.

For some Christians, their search for balance has persuaded them that less of church will give them more of life. In reality, all Christians should recognize the church as central to our lives, not merely an element to be counterbalanced against other facets.

You read that correctly—the center. The Christ-centered life is the church-centered life.

This article will explain how the centrality of the church is the key to finding the balance we so desperately seek.

The Dangers of Marginalized Church Life

Neglecting church life leads to deterioration in other areas of life. We may think forsaking church gatherings for family gatherings will bless our family, that moving far from church for our career is worth the cost, that Sunday school is more expendable than an extra hour of sleep, or that fewer church relationships and commitments will reduce our stress. But the inverse is true.

These are mindsets born of forgetfulness. We forget that Christ is our greatest source of blessing, and his church is often the primary means he uses to grow, sustain, and encourage us. The church’s ordinary means of grace are the modus operandi for knowing Christ more.

A church member partaking of grace half-heartedly doesn’t just hurt him or herself, but the whole church as well. The health of a church will largely be contingent upon how its members prioritize it. Mere attendance leads to a lifeless church, a place of spiritually isolated, lonely people. Single people feel their relational state more acutely, the elderly feel irrelevant, married couples keep their struggles buried deep, and children never voice their doubts. These are churches where sin lurks safely, covered by shallow relationships, far from the prying eyes of discipleship.

Just as physical malnourishment leads to deterioration, starvation, and eventually death, so too neglect of the church.

The Beauty of the Church-Centered Life

In contrast, a church full of members committed to its centrality is full of life. Members know one another intimately, having sat together around dinner tables. After corporate worship, teenagers are found holding babies, giving sleep-deprived moms a moment to meditate on the sermon preached. Childless couples are found chatting with toddlers. Widows are invited to young families’ homes.

Deeply rooted sin is dug out as men and women meet while doing yard work, eating breakfast, or watching a game. As they engage in ordinary activities, they do the extraordinary work of divulging the struggles of their hearts and sharing the encouragement they find in God’s Word. Praying together is so natural that it occurs in the pews after the service or in stolen moments at fellowship gatherings. Children grow up in a place where discipleship and fellowship are seen as more essential than winning trophies or scholarships.

The fellowship of the church differs from other communities for one reason: Christ. By Christ alone we are united, and so our community is built upon the cross, a costly foundation. With Christ as our strength and example, church members learn to die to themselves, confessing our sin to pursue holiness, forgiving when we have been wronged, and sacrificing for the good of others. And we take up these crosses not only to draw closer to one another, but to Christ, who is both the author and prize of the church.

Counting the Cost of Treasuring the Church

Achieving this kind of culture will require a ruthless reevaluation of our priorities. If the church is to be central to our lives, then many other things cannot. Cultural norms of organizing our lives around homes, careers, and family will need to be reassessed in light of the priority that Scripture places upon the church in the epistles.

With our perspective reoriented, we will come to see the church’s regular gatherings as the most important hours of our week. We will see deep relationships among the church body not merely as preferable, but essential. We may have to say no to things we have assumed we should always say yes to—various extracurriculars for our kids, career advancement opportunities, consistent and extended absences that pull us away from community.

But in saying no, we will be saying yes to what truly enriches our souls and prepares us for eternity.

Conclusion

The solution to burdensome and imbalanced lives will be found in blending our lives so seamlessly with the church that we think of them as inseparable. For it is there where we center ourselves on Christ and his Word. It is there we are reminded why we exist and for whom we live. It is there we live not as islands in this world, but as the body of Christ. Only there will we be delivered from the weariness, loneliness, and anxiety that come from a life at odds with God’s design. Only a church-centered life can create the kind of equipoise we so desperately seek, as the church unites the disparate pieces of our lives in Christ.