After 30 years of attending the same church and loving the same church family, last Wednesday night I sat in a new one.

It is an adventure of sorts. Meeting new people. Starting over.

I think the one thing I took away from that night was this:

We need each other.

It’s the beauty of discipleship.

Meeting in a church or community group or small group allows us to take our salvation deeper.

We pray together, eat together, share our stories, and learn together.

Maybe you’ve stayed away from community because . . . well, there’s people involved.

The church isn’t perfect, and it’s never going to be. Even the best churches deal with conflict or work-in-progress human beings.

But we need the church because we are the church.

We are stronger because:

When we come together, we are no longer flying solo. It’s the three-cord principle (Ecclesiastes 4:12).

We are forced to climb out of our own bubble and hear other perspectives. It may open a door to ministry or in your own thinking that would never be opened otherwise.

We are challenged to dig deeper into the Word.

We become others-centered rather than me-centered.

Are you involved in a church? Not just a building or a denomination, but a body of believers who are growing together?

If not, why not?

What is one step you could take today toward a new church family?