The Benefits of Spending Decades in One Church
The biblical metaphors used to describe the church teach us that long-term membership in a local congregation ought to be the norm. Yet many strands of contemporary life work against that norm—against putting down roots in one church for decades. The independent, consumer-driven culture we inhabit pulls us away from the kind of “staying” which in turn makes for healthy Christians and healthy churches.
Restless for something new, we leave one church to attend another down the road. Or, drawn by a range of programs better suited to meet our needs, we leave a good church and dear friends, to go where the perceived benefits are greater. Or, experiencing relational diculties, we uproot ourselves from a faithful church to start over again in a place where we are relatively unknown, where little is expected of us, and where church life is, frankly, easier.
Christians and churches are worse-off whenever a casual, impermanent, transitory approach to local church life prevails. Believers benefit from maintaining a long-term church identity and local churches benefit from having long-term members. The fact is, “There’s always a core group of faithful people at the heart of every healthy congregation. Our lives and our churches are better because of them.”
The metaphors the Bible uses to describe the church and illustrate church life make the case that we should aspire to be among that core of faithful saints who remain in one church for a long time. For example, the “body” metaphor (1 Cor. 12:27) assumes continuity of local church membership—hands and feet don’t jump from one body to another.
The “living stones” metaphor likewise suggests immovability. Once built-together by God (1 Pet. 2:5), the living stones stay put. The “family” metaphor implies continuity of both relationship and identity. In healthy families, one’s family members don’t change even as the family grows.
The “planting of the Lord” metaphor (Isa.61:3) suggests that putting down roots in God’s house leads to a lifetime of flourishing and fruitfulness. A plant must stay rooted to thrive. Constant transplanting stifles growth.
[The righteous] are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green to declare that the LORD is upright. (Ps. 92:13-14).
Those metaphors leave us not with legalistic rules about remaining in one church under all circumstances but with consciences sensitized to the normative ideal–that of a deep-rooted staying.
What are the benefits of spending years, even decades, in one local church?
Bill Patton, Pastor, Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills, PA)
Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Journal, March 2023.