Newbie's guide: How to get the most out of church
In the last section we talked about the reason why the Church exists and the benefits of participating in church as a new believer in Christ. In this section I wanted to talk about how to get the most out of church as a new Christian.
A lot of churchgoing Christians would describe church as a place that they go every Sunday to sing to God with worship music, hear a sermon from a pastor or Bible teacher, and go home afterwards. This is all good, and it’s probably where every churchgoer should start, but it is only a small part of church. Church involves so much more than just going into an auditorium and listening to a sermon.
Going back to our passage in Acts 2:42-47, which describes what the Church was like in its earliest days, helps us see what church was meant to be:
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47 NKJV)
As you can see, both studying of proper Biblical doctrine as well as praise and worship are definitely part of church. But there is also so much more to church, including friendship, community, prayer, signs and wonders, and giving both to people inside and outside the church. Healthy churches come in many forms, colors, shapes, and sizes, but every healthy church I’ve been to has most, if not all of these, as part of their work. And remember, the Bible talks about the Church as being “the body of Christ”; healthy bodies are living and active. Both practically and biblically speaking, you will get a lot more out of church if you get involved beyond attending service on Sundays.
(Of course, there may be circumstances where attending a Sunday service is all you can do. If so, be proud of yourself, and enjoy your Sunday services! This is serving as encouragement to get as involved in church as you can, and to put the time in to build relationships in a healthy church — you won’t regret it!)
Here are some practical ways that you can get more involved in church:
Join a small group. “Small group”, “life group”, “cell group” — it may go by different names in different churches, but the concept is the same. Small groups are what the name says: a smaller group of people within the church who meet up regularly to talk about the Bible and Christian topics, but also just to be friends and have fun. Small groups are often divided into groups of people in similar stages of life: men’s groups, women’s groups, young women’s groups, singles groups, young professionals, Spanish speakers, and anything else in between. They are literally designed for you to be able to make friends in church so that when you come on a Sunday, you have some familiar faces to see and talk to. Easy peasy! The only caveat is that in some churches, they are seasonal (meeting every week for 2-3 months, then not meeting for a month or two) so you may have to wait for them to start up if you join the church in an off month. Also, not every church has them — to my knowledge, they are a fairly modern concept.
Join a service team. From the passage above, you should know that churches are supposed to be all about service. From practical experience, there is no faster way to get involved in a church and to meet people than to join a service team. Unlike small groups, which are often seasonal, service teams are always on, because churches meet pretty much every Sunday of the year! There are tons of volunteer positions in every church. Teams that exist in almost every church I know of to help run a service include: ushers, who help seat people in the auditorium for Sunday service; kids’ team (Sunday school), where you get to teach young kids about Jesus; greeters, who welcome people to Sunday service; worship team (or praise team), who sing and play instruments in order to lead people in worshiping God; outreach team, which helps plan ways for the church to serve the local community and spread the good news of Jesus; and the prayer team, people who pray for the church as well as the people within it concerning their various needs. These are just a few of the various teams that help a healthy church thrive. Joining any one of them will introduce you to a small group of people that you can get to know. And you’ll find that in giving your time to something outside yourself, you’ll be blessed. As the Bible says, “it’s better to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
Join the church on a retreat or a mission trip. A church retreat is just like any other retreat, except for its being Christian; usually a group of people from the church takes a trip away from their normal location for a couple of days to a week. This could be a trip a bigger Christian conference (think Sunday service, but over several days and bigger) or to a peaceful place out in the countryside — it varies. Regardless of location, the idea of a retreat is to be able to clear away daily distractions for a short time in order to get closer to the Lord. You’ll find that you can also meet people and become closer with them, too, on a retreat. A mission trip is a trip that lasts a week or two, and is usually meant as a service trip. Unfortunately, the word “missions” may have a bad connotation to some people, associated with people who in the past used the cover of the Gospel to subjugate people and cultures. No modern missions trip is anything like that. Most of the time, your church will have a friendship or partnership with another church in the local area, and the idea is that your churches work together to spread the Gospel in a culturally relevant way. You’ll learn as much from serving the people in that place as those people will learn from you, guaranteed!
Pray for your church. Once you find a church that you click with, remember to pray for your church regularly. Pray for your pastors, the staff, and the volunteers that keep the church running. People who work in a church, especially pastors, suffer from a lot of pressure without too many breaks, and there are a lot of ways that pastors can fall.
Consider giving to your church. Again, I reference the passage in Acts which says that the early Church “sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all, as any had need”. No church should ever pressure you to give money as a first-time attender, but if you’ve been attending a church for a while and you consider your church a good one that you would want to support and see grow, consider donating money to your church. Most churches are nonprofits that are funded pretty much entirely by people’s giving; this is why they ask people to give every week. When you do decide to start giving, it should be because you decided to do so, never due to pressure. As 2 Corinthians 9:7 says (in the English Standard Version or ESV): “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
These are just some of the ways that you can get more involved in church. If none of these strike your fancy or if they aren’t obviously pointed out in your church, pray to God about where to get involved, and he’ll show you where to go. Not only will getting actively involved help you to benefit more from a church community, it will also enable you to be a part of the Church as God intended you to be. As 1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.” Church isn’t meant to be a passive act; it’s meant to be a living, breathing community of passionate followers of Jesus, where all of the members work together and find the place where God specifically intended them to be.
Sound good? Read the next section to find out how to find a good church!