Tue Aug 5

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the word the.

Reading

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15— A Mandate For Church Membership

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Church membership is important.
Church membership helps us love Jesus.
We should seek to do good to everyone.

Questions

(some read the ?s before notes, then ask them after)

Why should Christians join the church?
How should we interact with others in the church?
In what ways is the church a family?

Notes

Today’s notes are from a commentary on Thessalonians by Richard D. Phillips

One of the most important applications that we can make from Paul’s teaching on church leaders is to realize that it entails a mandate for church membership. If the Lord has placed leaders over the church and called them to the triple function of laboring, ruling, and admonishing, then it follows that the Lord’s people are to be organized in churches under this very kind of spiritual leadership.

Some people ask the question, “Why should I join the church?” There are a number of good answers. One is that God has organized human society in covenantal relationships, and Christians are to bond together as a covenant people in the Lord. This points to the analogy of the church as a family, with its associations of affection, loyalty, and commitment. Just as the family bond is a relationship based on blood unity, the church family expresses our unity in the Spirit of Christ. Many Christians who enter the church should find the kind of acceptance, honesty, and ministry that they have never known in their natural families, and should gain the opportunity to provide warm and affectionate family love to others. …

Another reason why church membership is essential is our calling together to the work of the Lord. Jesus’ Great Commission charges us not merely to make casual believers or fickle spiritual consumers. Instead, Jesus gave his followers a commission that can be fulfilled only in the context of a faithful church… (Matt. 28:19–20). Christ’s command to baptize is especially telling, since this sacrament serves to initiate new members into the church.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 122a, 85a

Prayer

Ask the Lord to make you a good church member.
Give thanks for something from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.