What are some of the most frequently asked questions about the church? - Podcast Episode 163, Part 2

Welcome to the Got Questions podcast. This is part two of our episodes on frequently asked questions about the church.

So I encourage you to, if not already, listen to part one where we discuss some of the other most frequently asked questions.

And also, a few episodes ago, we did one on what is the purpose of the church. Joining me again today is

Nelson. He's the director of video content for Got Questions Ministries. And Gwen, who is the administrator for CompellingTruths .org

and is the leader, so to speak, of our volunteer services, helps keep all our volunteers continuing to answer questions biblically.

So Gwen, Nelson, thanks for joining me again today. And for today's set of frequently asked questions about the church,

I thought I'd start off asking Nelson this one. Nelson, when is it right to leave a church and look for another one?

Well, there are many answers to that question, some of them very simple.

Sometimes you just get a new job and you're not in the area anymore, or you move and you're not close enough to the church.

And we talked about earlier, about when you're looking for a church, it's really helpful to be close. So that way you can be involved in the people that go there are close to you.

And so you can be involved in their lives and help out with their needs. So one of the reasons for leaving a church and a good reason at that is if you happen to move further away from that church, or sometimes even that church, maybe they were meeting in a local school or something, and the church ends up moving farther away and just a little unattainable.

And so those are legitimate reasons. It shouldn't be expected to have to travel, you know, half hour, 45 minutes to get to a church or whatever you decide is too far for your family to go.

I mean, there are some other reasons. I know in the early days to leave the church, you'd have to leave town, right?

But nowadays churches are nearly, it feels like they're on every single corner. And so there are a lot of options.

And because of all these options, sometimes it always feels like the grass is greener on the other side. And I've seen people leave the church for no other reason, but because it just looks more fun over there.

And that's not a good reason just because you just want to have a church service that's more fun, or you just want to go there just to see.

When you go and participate in church, you're not just sitting in a pew. You're not just listening to a sermon.

You're not just singing songs. You're doing these things, but you're also participating, and at least you should be, in the lives of the people around you.

And so it's really important to stay connected and not just abandon the people around you. A lot of people don't understand that when you leave a church, you leave the individuals as well at that church.

Some of those people might have built and put incredible time and effort into your life or to your family's life, and when you just leave for any apparent reason, you've just abandoned them.

Or sometimes someone is really depending on you at that church for encouragement or for counsel or for many other reasons, and again, you're not going to be there.

And so we need to think about these things when we decide to leave a church. A good reason to leave a church, when we talk about Scripture, is as we look at the church and if that church is not preaching

Christ as head of the church, there's a good reason. If he's not preeminent in the church, if he's not being taught there, and the proper doctrines aren't being taught there, then those are good reasons to leave church.

You know, Colossians chapter 1 verse 18 says, So if Christ is not head of that church, if Scripture and the doctrine doesn't follow closely there, then that could be a reason.

Again, you should talk to the pastor or to the elders if you feel they're straying or they have strayed in some sort of area.

Don't just jump ship because you've decided quickly. This should be done with counsel, with others around you who see the same things as you see.

Again, something else that's very closely related to that is truth being proclaimed in that church. Have they decided to follow an agenda lately?

Are they just following one cause? Are they just focusing on areas where they shouldn't be?

The church is supposed to be a beacon, a buttress of truth. We see that in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15, where it should be the church of the living

God is a pillar and a buttress of the truth. And so if the truth isn't being proclaimed and lived out there, and instead they're following some other truths or some fads or whatever it might be, then these are good reasons why you might want to consider leaving that church.

Again, with counsel from other believers around you who see the same things. Too many times as a pastor,

I've heard, oh the Lord is calling me somewhere else. Then you really get down into their rationale and their reasons, and really it's just they want to go somewhere else, and some of those reasons might be legitimate.

A lot of those reasons are not. A lot of times it's because they have unresolved conflict within the church, and they just think it's easier to leave, which tends to be most of the time while people do leave church.

We just talked about in the last episode is if you didn't catch that while conflict resolution, I encourage you to listen to that.

So we have to pay attention to those things. We have a responsibility to others in that church.

We're supposed to be growing in that church, and if you're not growing in that church either, if you've been there and you've been listening to the teaching, you've been participating as much as you are able to participate in that church, and you're finding that there is no growth there for you, and others again have counseled you and said they've noticed those same things, then that could be another reason why you should leave the church.

I hope you see the overall theme here is that it's not just you who sees why you should leave the church.

I believe as a church we are a body of Christ, and we should be working together, and if you're the only one seeing what you're seeing, it might not be the problem of someone else.

It might be your problem, and maybe you need to resolve that issue between you and someone else or you and God. Well, I think that's so important about communication.

If it is time for you to leave a church, like you said, Nelson, of actually talking to the leadership about, hey, here are my concerns.

If it is a doctrinal thing or I'm not growing or whatever, and to actually have that conversation rather than just silently leave, or if it's, oh,

I just really don't like this other person, then maybe that's something you need to work out. I do think there are some times that there are good reasons to leave a church.

I think that can be positive for both. I've heard a pastor call this a gospel goodbye. There are times when

God is calling somebody to maybe help support a new church plant, or maybe

God is calling you to a new aspect of ministry that this church is unable to support or doesn't have opportunity for that.

But that can be a healthy and good goodbye of, oh, God is calling the church in this direction, but he's calling me to this.

Those are all still kingdom goals. We're all still part of the universal church. I just need to be over here now, and you guys need to be there.

We can celebrate that with one another and make it a nice goodbye.

I think that's also the key of if and when it is confirmed that it's time to leave a church, do it nicely.

Don't make unnecessary division. Don't badmouth other people. I guess be a

Christian about it. That's an excellent point. We've talked before about how the church is a family.

And according to the New Testament, the bonds we have with other brothers and sisters in Christ should be stronger and closer bonds than we even have with our own biological family members if they're not believers.

The church is truly a family. We are a body together. So let's not look at leaving as something that's easy to do.

It's not a decision to be taken casually. No, it should only be done in clear, explicit, biblical violations where conflict cannot be resolved or is not being resolved in a biblical manner or whether, as Nelson was saying, the church is not teaching the gospel or Christ is not the head.

It's got to be major things. Far too many people leave a church for trivial reasons.

It may not be trivial to that person, but biblically speaking, trivial reasons. And that's the complete wrong attitude to have.

Just as you cannot separate the fact that you are biologically related to your family members, you should not look at separating from your brothers and sisters in Christ and the local body you've been a part of as a decision to be taken lightly.

So next question on our list, and I'll tackle this one, is what is expository preaching and why is it important?

A lot of people don't even really know what exactly is expository preaching in comparison to other forms of preaching.

And essentially the word exposit means to take a passage of scripture and explain it.

So as I was saying, the focus of your sermon is on a passage in the Bible. You're not just sharing your own opinions, your own ideas.

The sermon is not just a collection of my stories that you're telling that might maybe have a good

Christian application. No. An expository sermon, expository preaching, is taking the

Word of God and explaining what it means, like what actually the text is saying, but then also then showing how that meaning then applies to us personally, practically, today.

Emphasizing expository preaching is not saying you can't preach an occasional topical sermon.

Even topical sermons can be done in an expository manner. You can pick a, say if you want to preach on Patience or you can want to preach on Father's Day.

Well, find a passage in the Bible that talks about Patience or a passage that talks about what a godly father looks like and then explain that passage and show how it applies to how we honor our father, respond to our earthly parents, and so forth.

So it's a whole different attitude towards the scriptures that brings people to want to both preach expositionally, expository, and also to hear it.

We want the Word of God explained to us because we know there's only the Word of God, as Isaiah 55, 11 promises, that will always have an impact.

We can tell, again, like I said, great stories. We can tell great jokes.

We can get people laughing, get people excited, get people pumped up and motivated. Ultimately, if it's devoid of a scriptural foundation, it will eventually prove to be empty.

So expository preaching is this preaching the Word of God, making the

Word of God, helping us to understand it, being the focus of the sermon.

It is, again, pointing to God's Word as the guidebook for our lives, as the standard for faith and practice, the inerrant and inspired and authoritative message from God that gives us everything we need to both relate to Him and know how to have a successful, growing

Christian life in this world. So that's why expositional, expository preaching is important because it's the

Word of God, and that is to be the focus of our teaching. And it's looking to the pastoral epistles, so 1st, 2nd

Timothy and Titus, repeated exhortations to preach the Word, to live out the

Word, to preach sound doctrine, and that's what expository preaching is supposed to be all about.

Yeah, I think it's so important. I think many times some pastors and some parishioners are okay with just using the text as proof text.

You know, there might be a lot of teaching happening, and long talk happening, and the

Scriptures would just be referenced as, here's a proof text, here's something related to that. Or some other times, if you're not expository preaching, they read a text that they might have to read, and then they just kind of wedge in their point into it, and it shouldn't be like that.

A pastor should be teaching the Word of God, and it's applicable for everything in our lives, and there's nothing that happens to us, there's no scenario in our lives that the

Word of God doesn't speak to. And so, whether you're going through a book of the Bible, verse by verse, or preaching on different topical subjects, you can still go through the text and hear what

God has to say on that. So Gwen, next question is to you, closely related to the one you just answered last episode, why is church attendance important?

This time, why is corporate worship important? Yeah, so the reason it's closely associated is, worship is really,

I've actually had a pastor explain it as worthship, in terms of like, we're giving God then the worth that He deserves, and it really should be all of our life.

So corporate is when we do that together, and that's of course everything that a church does together.

I mean, this includes all of Sunday service, like it's all of the teaching, it's all of the fellowship, it's all of the singing, it's baptism, it's communion, it's all of that.

But I think oftentimes when people hear corporate worship, they think of the music, because we have, you know, worship leaders who do the music, and that is a totally like, worship through music is super important.

So yeah, so why is it? And I think for a lot of reasons, you know, we talked about in a few episodes ago, of seeing songs throughout the

Bible in terms of like the Psalms are things that the congregation would sing together, and even when they came from a personal experience, then they were meant to be sung together.

We see singing happen in heaven. So like, this is just something that God's people do, is respond to Him through song.

We see explicit mentions of this in the New Testament, like Colossians, yes, it's

Colossians 316, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And there's a very similar verse in Ephesians 519. And if you look at this around in context, like a lot of those are just other, it's part of just doing life together as believers and as the family.

So that's one thing, it's just, it's how we worship God, one way that we worship

God. But I think like song, and especially corporately, it really is instructive to us.

I mean, think about how many songs from like your childhood or your teenage years, you still remember, maybe you haven't thought about them or heard them or sung them in years.

And then you go to some reunion and it's like, you know, every single lyric. And that's just because music really sticks with us.

So when we're singing theologically rich songs, like that's instructive to us and comes back to us.

And so I, you know, how many times like during the week is just a worship song from church comes to my mind and is exactly what

I need for the moment and is teaching my heart, like this is who God is. And is that reminder of praise to Him or of comfort in Him or of His consistency, or, you know, even declaring truth about who

I am because of who He is. And I think that too, when we're doing that together, we can be sort of teaching one another.

So when I hear other people sing it, that also reminds me like, wow, all of these people believe that and know that and like hearing them teaches me that this is true.

And, you know, I think one of the, I mean, complaints about church for a lot of people is the music like, oh,

I don't like the songs or I don't like the old songs or it's too slow or it's too fast or it's too loud or whatever.

But I was thinking this morning of how even that is instructive. You know, maybe it is a hymn from like 200 years ago and you're like, man, this is so old and slow, but wow, what a testament to the faithfulness of God and to the continuation of His church.

Like these truths about God were true then and they're true now. Or even like new songs, you know, like that's also, again, a testament to the faithfulness of God and continuation.

Like, wow, a new generation praises Him in this way. And like, isn't that great that God connects with every generation and like, and is always relevant and always faithful.

So, yeah. So I think those are just some of the reasons that music at church is important.

I like your point, Gwen, that so often we think of worship as only like the singing part of the service.

And clearly that's maybe the most obvious expression of worship is when we're singing passionately to the

Lord, telling Him how much we love Him, how glorious He is, those sorts of things.

But the Bible nowhere limits worship to singing.

I mean, obedience is an act of worship. Studying God's Word is an act of worship. Submitting to God's Word is an act of worship.

Encouraging one another to more closely follow Christ is an act of worship. So ultimately everything we're supposed to be doing at church is an act of showing

God how much we value Him, how much He is worth, as you said, not just the singing part of it.

But again, there's no point in fighting the dominant cultural view that worship is the singing part.

But again, it's a good reminder to us that no, we worship God with every part of our life, everything we do, not just singing in church on Sundays.

Well, I think that's the whole, you know, like Jesus talks about worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth. And so like,

I think spirit, I often think of it's with all of who I am. And truth is like, it actually lines up with who

God is. And so isn't that amazing about God, that all those ways really are ways of worshiping

Him. And I, you know, and I think too of music, like, wow, doesn't that just show like the beauty and artistry of God?

Like, it's not all just obey me and know things about me. It's like, and also express it in this beautiful way, because God is just that big that like, that all of that is worship to Him because He is all of those things.

And that's a moment in the service where everyone is participating. And I think that's important to think about.

I mean, a lot of times you go to a service and for half the service, while you're listening to the sermon, it's amazing. It's the teaching moment. You're listening to the teacher and you're soaking in.

But a lot of times our worship is an outpouring of our hearts to God. And we're doing it collectively.

We're hearing other people at the same time. And those words remind us about God. And oftentimes, even if you want to pray during those other times, as you're standing there and other people are singing these songs, you could just be thanking

God about what He's done and is doing in your life. These are all expressions of worship. I just love how in that moment, everyone is participating together.

Amen. So Nelson, next question to you.

This one for me, it gets close to home. So the question is, why is church membership important?

And the reason this is personal for me is it's the church I attend right now. There are a number of people in the church who are as committed to the church as you can be, have been attending some of them for up to 20 years, but they have no interest in becoming members of the church.

So what would you say to that person who attends regularly, gives, serves, but is just for whatever reason, is not at all interested in actually becoming a member of the church?

I want to ask him why. That's going to be my first question. What is it that scares you? What is it that you don't like about this term, about this definition?

A lot of times, people are dating, they'll have a DTR, right? A define the relationship. And membership kind of does that too.

It defines your relationship with that local assembly. Are you just attending?

Are you just visiting? Are you just soaking in? Are you healing? Are you just wanting to listen?

Or are you there to be a member, to be a participant in that local assembly?

Membership's important in the sense where we think about different things. In the early church, we see that they looked at the numbers of the people that are being saved in scripture.

In Acts chapter 2, verse 41, it says, So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3 ,000 souls.

So somebody's counting, right? Then you skip down a couple of verses to verse 37. It says, Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the

Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. And so once they were saved, they were added.

And so these believers were being included within that local church assembly, and they were keeping track of those things.

And that was important, for instance, for the deacons later on, who to serve, how to serve them, who knows these individuals, who have needs.

When we think about membership, again, it reminds us of both those things. And it also reminds a pastor about his responsibilities.

Could he possibly be responsible for everyone who visits that church one time? Or is he more responsible for the individuals that are there?

And so when we have membership at a church, it helps define his scope of work, his scope of responsibilities of who he's supposed to keep track of and tabs on, and how he can speak into their lives.

Because a lot of times as a member, you've agreed to what membership is, and that sometimes includes being disciplined.

And if you're not okay with that, well then you're not okay with Scripture, because Scripture calls us to be able to be willing to receive the discipline, not only from the

Lord, but also from our church leaders and those around us who might rebuke us for sin. And so there's that sense of the pastor being able to understand and know, and they have this agreement where,

I know you're watching my life, and it goes both ways. We're watching each other's lives, and so that's really important to have when you consider church membership.

It's also important when we think about accountability. If you're not a member of a local assembly, if you're not claiming to be a part of that body, then how can anyone keep tabs on you?

They help you be accountable to the call that you have from the Lord. We can't do this alone, and we're never meant to live our faith alone.

We're meant to live it in unity with other believers, striving after being the body of Christ together, and that accountability is a very important part of being a part of the body of Christ, a very important part of that accountability.

So it's also important for some practical reasons as well. Membership of church will help decide sometimes the budget of the church.

It will help decide who staffs that church, could decide the missionaries or the programs or things like that they might support financially where those budget and monies go, and so it helps also again define the relationship in that sort of sense.

Who has a say when those things happen? Can anyone just walk in? What if they're not a and then they're voting on spiritual things, giving their input on spiritual things where they don't even know

Christ? That's an important... that's a big problem. They might not understand the aspect of serving others.

They might not understand the aspect of giving part of the church budget to missionaries in some far -off land. If they don't love the

Lord, that might not be a concern of theirs, and so membership of a church includes believers who are known to be believers and who are tested as such, meaning they've had conversations with leaders, and they are counted on the role, and the pastor is responsible for their families, for tending to them.

The scripture talks about how a pastor is held accountable by God for those whom he pastors, and so he needs to be sure, and he needs to know who are the ones here who are the members who are the ones going to be receiving

God's Word and whom I'm going to be accountable for as I stand before the Lord. So those are some of the reasons why

I think membership is an important part of church attendance. We can go to church, and you can sit in one.

It's not essential to be a believer, to be a member of a church, but I believe it is a good thing and a helpful thing all around for both the congregant and for the pastor and those other individuals so that they can know together to keep each other accountable, and they can together walk in the ways that Christ walked in following the early church's lead.

And Nelson, I like how you said that there's both biblical theological reasons and also very practical reasons, and I think that even the practical aspect of it is that the church has decisions it needs to make, like purchasing property, hiring a pastor, deciding on a vision or mission or strategy, and we want only believers taking part in those decisions.

So typically part of the process of becoming a member is like an interview with an elder or other church leader where it's trying to verify, is this someone who knows the

Lord, loves the Lord, is committed to His Word in agreement with the church's statement of faith?

Because those are the type of people you want helping you and participating with you in making decisions. So even from a very practical standpoint, church membership is very, very important, and I know it's frustrating on pastors and leaders of churches when people aren't interested in the membership, even from the perspective of God's calling me to be a shepherd, how do

I know who are the people who are actually a part of my flock? And that's one of the things that church membership is supposed to communicate.

So next question on our list, and I'll tackle this one. To what degree should churches be involved in social issues?

And often when this question is asked, really what they're saying is political issues, but some social issues and political issues, say take abortion for example, where I think

Scripture is abundantly clear on how God views life, that Christians even as preaching the

Word are going to touch on this subject. There's no way to avoid it when you look at what the

Bible says about how God forms us in the womb, or from the moment of conception we are created in the image and likeness of God.

Those sorts of things speak very clearly on this issue. And there's some other issues, whether it's gender -related issues, sexuality -related issues that Scripture clearly talks about.

So if the Bible talks about a social or political issue, yes, we are to be involved in those issues.

We are to speak the truth and love on those issues. But with that said,

I've also seen churches make the mistake of becoming so hyper -focused on politics, or even important social issues like abortion, to the point that that's what the church is most known for.

And once a church goes that far into spending all of its time, resources, money even, on a certain issue, oh, that's the church that always has the pro -life crusades, or that's the church that protests at this or that, that's not what the church is supposed to be known for.

We're supposed to be known for to be a body of people who follow Jesus Christ, who proclaims the gospel of salvation through grace alone, in faith alone, in Christ alone.

We are to be about those type of things. Those are the type of things we're supposed to be most known for. Once we start being so focused on politics or on social issues, that's when it becomes a distraction.

So should churches and Christians be involved in social and political issues? Absolutely. There's no issue where we should not speak the truth and love.

But let's not become so focused on whether it's an issue, whether it's a candidate, whether it's a policy, that that becomes a distraction from the gospel, from the great commission of making disciples.

And so there's a balance here. Yes, we should be involved in social issues. We should care about politics, but not to the point that it outweighs our efforts or time spent proclaiming the gospel and making disciples.

Well, I think sometimes, you know, and it's just like involved in social issues. I do agree that mostly, most of the time people are thinking, talk about politics.

But I wonder how many people don't realize how like involved believers are in helping with social issues.

You know, like abortion, you mentioned, like there are so many pregnancy centers and most of them are run by believers.

Or you think about a lot of churches have like food pantries or benevolence funds. I mean, that's being involved in social issues in terms of like helping those who are hurting or lacking in practical ways.

And I think also like the churches, you know, involved in social issues by being involved in their communities, by just being good neighbors who speak the truth and love and also live out that truth and, you know, actively help people.

So that's, I think, you know, that's different than like talking about politics. But I think there are also a lot of ways to, to be involved in your local community.

That's really just being Jesus to other people, whether that's considered by our culture, a social issue or not.

So last question on our list of frequent last questions about the church. Gwen, why don't you take this one?

What is the importance of small group ministry, like a community group, like Bible study ministry, in addition to the

Sunday service? And I think I'd like to hear your perspective on this because of the three of us, you attend the largest church.

And that's when I think a small group ministry becomes especially important. So Gwen, according to the Bible, why is a small group ministry so important?

So I think this is really where we best live out the one another's. And, you know, as Shay was saying, like churches will call them different things, small group, community group.

There's also like group Bible study in a smaller group. And a lot of churches also do

Sunday school classes. So kind of the overarching idea is, you know, Sunday service, you're kind of like with everybody, however many that everybody is.

And then in these groups, you're with a smaller amount of people where you can really maybe where you can dig into teaching a little bit more or do a separate kind of study that might fit your season or your particular interest.

You know, perhaps you're a parent of a young child and like really just need some help parenting. So you do like a study on parenting while you're also attending like church that's going through a book of the

Bible. But or, you know, or maybe our community groups at my church, we talk through the sermon.

So that's like a helps you really actually like process it. And how are we actually going to practically apply this?

And, you know, how really are we understanding this? So I think it's just that smaller arena where you can really dig into the word more deeply.

You can also pray for one another. I mean, when you're, you know, in Sunday service, like actually the campus that I attend, like Shay said,

I do attend a large church. It's multi -site. And so my campus is relatively small and we do write prayer requests that the staff prays for, but it's in my community group where I really share like, here's what's going on for me this week.

Can you be praying for me? And where they share what's going on for them and we pray for one another and share those updates.

And Nelson talked about church membership and that how accountability is important. And I think, you know, like that's going to happen a lot easier in a smaller group of people who you're really sharing life with and doing life with.

I mean, the person like two rows behind me who may or may not know my name isn't really going to help me like with my, you know, are you really spending time with God?

Hey, you said that like, God is working on patience in you. How's that going? Like they're not going to know that.

So those smaller groups are where that happens. And I think too, you know, like small groups can be the place where we ask questions.

Like maybe we're wrestling with a doubt or we're not really sure about something and you can't, you know, during the sermon on Sunday, you don't like raise your hand and like,

Hey, excuse me, I have a question. You ask that in smaller context.

So, um, yeah. And I think the other thing is, uh, just also that practical help of like, it's where we really do life with one another.

And you know, I think of those practical things of like somebody sick and needs a meal train, like your small group is a great place to be able to do that.

Or even just building those familial relationships, depending on if you live close to them.

Like I know people from my community group go to my same gym. And so we have that like throughout the week context.

So it's not just like, just on Sundays is where I get this spiritual nourishment. And then the rest of the week

I'm on my own. It's no, like I have people that I'm doing life with throughout the week that are encouraging me and that hopefully

I'm encouraging as well. Yeah. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people come up to me or to other pastoral staff and they just say, you know,

I feel alone. I feel like, you know, I'm just here and you know, I don't,

I'm not connecting with anyone. And then we're asking, well, are you involved in small groups?

Are you involved in serving? And most of the time when those people come up to complain about not connecting and not finding meaningful relationships, they're not in those small groups that are not serving in a large capacity.

And so when we have a small group, they end up being generally a lot of times, you know, our closest friends.

And how good is that? I mean, I'm not sure if you watching this right now, if you have a lot of close friends that are close, that really know your needs, that you've shared openly your struggles with and that they pray for you and you pray for them and they check in on you, it's really nice to have that group of believers around you, a friend, a couple friends that you are really open and honest to.

And a lot of times you don't get that in any other context except within the small groups or community groups.

Remember you have in your church and it's just even that is an amazing thing. And also

I always like it, like you mentioned, Gwen, about not just meeting on Sunday, but you know, also having this spiritual nourishment, gathering together and expressing your united passion for Christ somewhere in the midweek.

That's why I always think it's really great when people have a small group and they don't go on Sunday. They don't just cram everything in on the weekend, but they try to make it somewhere in the week where it supplements, it adds to their week where they're meeting with other believers, and they have an almost like this recharge in a sense where the week can be beating them down, and then they get to meet with their small group, and then a couple days later they get to meet again with the large group, right, the congregation.

So there's so many aspects to small group that are such a benefit to individuals, and I encourage you listening or watching now, if you're not a part of a small group, you really should find a close community, small group of individuals that are in your church to connect with.

They're just untold blessings there. Absolutely well said, both of you. When I look at like a small group ministry or a community group ministry, to me it is the closest to what the

New Testament and early church history describes of how the very early Christians met. They met in homes and relatively small groups.

They studied God's Word together. They encouraged each other. They worshiped together.

They served alongside each other. They met each other's needs. All those things that occur in small groups today are most reminiscent of what the very early church looked like, and in no sense are we bashing all believers together in a service.

We think those are very good, very important things to be a part of as well. I mean, there's something, as we said, about worshiping corporately with a large body of believers that's just encouraging and it's powerful, but the personal contact that occurs in a small group ministry, the accountability, the more intimate prayer, those type of things are also vitally important in the

Christian life. So yes, small group ministry is incredibly important, both from a biblical perspective and also just from a practical.

Here's where we get really close to other believers in a way that we can actually minister to one another in meaningful ways.

So Gwen, Nelson, thank you for joining me for this two -part episode on some of the most frequently asked questions that we receive at GotQuestions .org

about the church, about what is the church, about what are we supposed to be doing in the church, what does it mean to attend church, what is the value, what is the purpose, all those things.

Very important questions, very frequent questions. Got questions? The Bible has answers and we'll help you find them.