John Benton touching on something in this latest column for @EvangelicalsNow that I think is so important.

I might articulate these thoughts more fully in another medium shortly, but his plea to give the local church a chance resonates.

https://www.e-n.org.uk/2021/02/regular-columns/whatever-happened-to-the-local-church/

When we start/leave uni, or move to a new town, what do we look for in a church? Many of us rightly want to prioritise finding a new church where we are settling. We all have criteria for how we do that. But do we look for a *local* church?

Depending on our 'flavour' of Christian faith there are certain churches in towns and cities that we instantly think of. John mentions some (kindly!) in his article. These are good churches, but they are not necessarily local. But they're what so often, we are attracted to.

So have we moved past the 'local church'? Maybe. But should we? I don't think so.

One danger that John touches briefly on is churches that become homogeneous. They attract a certain crowd, a certain demographic. But church isn't meant to be that.

The first churches were so radically counter-cultural, and arguably so missionally effective, in part because they were local. Small groups of believers gathered around God's Word. Slaves, freedmen and women, citizens and foreigners. The outcasts of society and the Roman elites.

The Early Church was made up of small local communities of diverse believers seeking to proclaim the Gospel to one another and to their communities through their witness.

Their 'localness' was a part of their witness.

What could possibly have made a Roman official willingly mix with slaves and societal outcasts and treat them as equals? Read Acts or the writings of the Church Fathers - it was the Gospel!

The New Testament churches were local, the early churches were local. Big churches are good, don't hear me saying they're not. But maybe we're falling out of love with the Local Church, and I don't think Scripture says we should.

Gathering as a local church allows us to enact 1 Cor 12. We become the body of Eph 4:15-16, building one another up in love, each different part doing its bit.

The NT gives us a beautiful picture of the Local Church in action, the Early Church gives us countless examples.

John is right to ask 'whatever happened to the local church?' And he's right to ask that we give it another chance. It might be tough, it might seem far less glamorous or less exciting. But if it is faithful and built around God's Word, it can be a wonderful and powerful witness.