Brentwood Church of Christ

Partaking of the Lord’s Supper as well as giving are requirements that can only be done on Sunday, but these are not the only requirements of Christians who are a part of a local body. Read carefully Ephesians 4:7-16. Notice all the things that God expects a local church to accomplish:

• Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip Christians so that they can do the work of ministry and the work of building up the body of Christ.
• This work is to be done till we all come to the unity of the faith and to maturity so that we are no longer children tossed about by every wind of doctrine.
• Instead, each member is to grow to the point of being able to speak the truth in love and grow up in all things like Christ.
• Each member is to be joined and knit together with all the other members.
• The body functions by every member supplying his part and doing his share. All of this put together causes the growth of the body as well as the edifying of the body in love.

Now, can all of this be accomplished by attending a one hour worship period on Sunday? Impossible. God has given the local church a great job to do which cannot be accomplished if individual Christians treat the local church as something they “go to” instead of a functioning unit they are a part of.

Hebrews 10:24-25 does not warn us of neglecting the assembly, but the assembling of the saints. The reason for the warning against such neglect is that we all need to stir up one another to love and good works so that we do not slip away as the Hebrew brethren were. Each member needs to both stimulate others as well as be stimulated himself to stay strong in the Lord. God did not tell us how many times to assemble, but we are to assemble enough to accomplish these goals He gave us. Certainly, an hour a week will not suffice.