By Emily King-Nobles, NVP Fellow

Date: March 25th, 2023

Just some Sunday thoughts:)

One of my favorite pastors, aka my father, did a sermon in church today, titled “Is Christianity still Relevant?”. To be honest, it’s a question I have thought about many times throughout the past few years. Organized religion is becoming less and less popular. The Church has become largely associated with political beliefs I see as hurtful. There seems to be more people than ever who have been hurt by the church and are leaving organized religion. 

I cannot say I blame people for leaving. Honestly, I’ve thought about leaving myself and often get asked why I haven’t. My go-to answer has always been, “The church is a human institution. It is flawed. While the church and organized religion have hurt me and people I love dearly, Jesus never has”. I still wholeheartedly agree with this answer and the distinction between church & Jesus, but I’ve come to the realization that it’s so much more than that. 

For, I see the faces of people’s whose lives have changed in a church community, and I always come running back. I’m not talking about people who walked in the church, found Jesus and became “saved” in a one-time event. I’m talking about the people who walked in the church, found people who surrounded them with love and then walked with them for the rest of their life. That is powerful.

So to anyone who’s ever asked why I still go to church, why I still believe it’s so deeply important to one’s life, here’s what I wish I would have said. This is what I believe a healthy Church can give to the world:

1. Love. From the moment I was born to now, I have been supported through the church more than any other place in my life. I never once had to question if people loved me or saw me. Every Sunday, I am asked questions about my life. The questions have changed from being about my favorite stuffed animals to now my major in college, but nonetheless, the interest in my life is there. I know without a doubt that there are people caring about my existence. 
2. A support team. Anyone who says we can get through this life alone is wrong. We need people in our darkness. As I sat and listened during prayer request time today, I watched member after member share updates in their life and lift up their worries, fears, griefs and celebrations to their church family. Carol’s surgery was no longer just hers. Sean’s mother’s cancer update was something we were all looking forward to. What a gift to have people walk into the trenches with you.  
3. Purpose. The knowledge that your life matters. Look around any college campus today. There is so much fear and anxiety about the world. Hopelessness. What is the point of life? In church, in scripture, in Jesus, we find this answer. We find proof that we are created from love and that the creator of the universe is crazy about our life. Even if everyone else in life has let us down and abandoned us, there is a God who leaves His 99 sheep behind just to find me. Wow. That’s a message we all need to be reminded of. We have a purpose.
4. Grace & Forgiveness. There’s not a whole lot of this in the world today. We live in the age of cancel culture. You say one thing wrong–you’re cancelled. But the church can provide an alternative to this. Forgive 70 x 7 times, Jesus says. The church can be a place of grace. When the college admissions team, the hiring committee, the prospective boyfriend all say, “your past is too rugged” or “you don’t fit” or “you don’t have what I’m looking for”, the church can say “you are exactly what we need”. “You are perfect for us”. 
5. Fun! Church should and can be fun. Some of my favorite memories growing up were in Sunday School, VBS, youth mission trips, carnivals. . .The church can be fun for all ages. 

So to answer my dad’s question…Yes, I think the church is absolutely relevant.