There was an old joke about the Church making its way around the seminary when I was a student back in the early 1980’s. It went something like this:

A young man awakens on a Sunday morning. He’s not in a very good mood. He calls out to his mother and says, ‘Mom, I don’t want to go to church today.’ After some silence, ‘But you must,’ came the answer from down the hall. ‘But mom, I don’t feel good,’ he replied. With that, his mom ratcheted up her strategy and said, ‘But darling, Jesus wants you to go to church today.’

Unpersuaded, the boy retorted, ‘But I don’t like church! I don’t like the music! I don’t like the all the long prayers, and all that sitting and standing and sitting again! And I really don’t like the people there! They are mean and they call me names, and I’ve just had my fill of them!’

Then came the final salvo from his mon: ‘But son, you have to go to church toady . . . you’re the pastor!’

Well, perhaps we’ve all experienced similar feelings about the Church from time to time. But that silly story does strike an important nerve, prompting serious and prayerful reflection upon some of the very real questions and concerns being raised about the Body of Christ today.

As you might know, some ‘experts’ have actually gone so far as to declare the death of the local Church. In their view, there is no need for local Churches like ours, with membership rolls and weekly gatherings in person for worship, instruction, and fellowship. The Church has been killed by technology, by its own cultural and spiritual slide into irrelevance, and by massive scandals and the apparently ubiquitous moral shortcomings of Church leaders. Christians simply don’t need the Church in order to be good and faithful believers in Christ, or so the claim goes.

But is this true? Has the Church reached the end of her life-span and usefulness? Do we really need to ‘go to Church’ anymore?

In light of such questions, we must reflect very deeply upon what God’s Word says about this body called the ‘Church.’

Beginning this coming Lord’ Day, we are going to take an eight-week trip through the Scriptures to discover what the Church is, where the Church came from, why the Church exists, how a real Church can be recognized.

We will begin our study on Sunday with the inspired words of the Apostle Peter found in 1 Peter 2:9-10. There we will discover the origin and identity of the Church.