Why is Attending Church Helpful To Your Christian Walk with Jesse Bradley

Mark Holland:

And welcome once again to Purposely Equipped, Why the Church. This series we’ve been talking with different local area pastors about, well, we’re on to question number four this week, but we’ve been through the question, What is Church? Number two was should we expect churches to be perfect? Number three was what if you’ve been hurt by the church, how to overcome that hurt? And we’re up to number four this week. Why is attending church helpful for your Christian walk? The benefits of getting involved in church seems like a pretty basic question. All of these questions have been, and we have wonderful pastors who’ve been participating. This week we’re talking with Jesse Bradley, the head pastor at Grace Community Church in Auburn. Hi, Jesse.

Jesse Bradley:

Thank you so much for having me and also for covering this important topic. It’s timely. A lot of people are wondering, should I return to church? Should I start going to church? What church should I go to? And this, I think, is one of those for people right now in their walk with God a very key topic.

Mark Holland:

Very key. And you are in a very key church there in the Auburn area. Tell us a little bit more about Grace Community Church. How long you’ve been there?

Jesse Bradley:

I’ve been here over seven years and our church is over 70 years old. Billy Graham came to Seattle Memorial Stadium just under the Space Needle and as he shared the gospel, people put their trust in Jesus and started our church. And we’ve been able to plant a few churches. We have a lot of international partners overseas. We have a digital ministry. We’ve seen over a million people indicate decisions to follow Jesus and we’re a multigenerational multicultural church and excited to be connected with churches in Auburn. We want to build up other churches connected with pastors and saturate the sound too, so we have a heart for the sound and excited about what God’s doing here locally.

Mark Holland:

Now, the Auburn area also is growing quite a bit, isn’t it, in population?

Jesse Bradley:

That’s right. We’re seeing not only in terms of growth and number of people, but also growing complexity. And there are challenges that have escalated, whether that’s safety for churches and some of the urban issues, I think, are right here in our doorstep now. And so there’s a lot of different dynamics, but the pastors have been very united. We love each other. We’re sharing God’s word. We’re looking out into the community. We want to make a difference together and there’s incredible potential in Auburn.

Mark Holland:

Okay, Grace Community Church in Auburn. And your website is what again?

Jesse Bradley:

Graceinauburn.com.

Mark Holland:

Graceinauburn.com, like that. Well, question four like we mentioned is why is attending church helpful for your Christian walk? It’s amazing how many Christians, particularly as we came through the pandemic, have kind of just given up on going to church in person. They’re just Zooming in or they’re just watching it online. But why do we need to be involved? It’s okay to do online stuff once in a while, but for the most part we need to be involved in church. Why is this so important for our Christian walk?

Jesse Bradley:

That’s right. When you look at the national trend right now, it’s the first time in the history of America that less than half the people are connected to a house of worship. And the pandemic obviously escalated that trend and people haven’t returned for a lot of churches, they haven’t come back yet. And here’s where you start. With scripture, with God’s word. And theologically, what is God saying to us? It’s God’s design. He has one body, the body of Christ. We’re one family and many local expressions, local churches. When you read the Bible, you have letters to the Thessalonians, to the Colossians, to the Ephesians. Well, these are cities, Corinthians, Corinth, Ephesus, and they’re real people, real cities, real churches, and they’re local. In book of Revelations, seven churches, they’re local churches.

God lays out a blueprint. This is a plan and design for His followers to have local churches in the scripture. And He describes, we have leaders, elders, deacons, deaconesses. And this is laid out because we need to be in alignment with God and with Heaven. And just like the Seahawks, they need a game plan. The body of Christ needs a game plan. It’s healthy, vibrant churches. And so I didn’t grow up personally going to church. I didn’t come to know Christ until college in Dartmouth-

Mark Holland:

Yeah, me neither.

Jesse Bradley:

… I read the Bible for the first time. So church discovery was later in life for me. And you really have to be discerning as well. And I like to think of it this way. When you’re checking out a church, there’s four Ws. The first one is the worship. Do they love God? Praying, fasting, seeking God sincerely. The second is the word. Do they open up and teach the Bible? Are they doers of the word? Do they trust scripture as their true source? And then the third one is warmth, authentic loving relationships. And then the fourth one is witness. What’s happening beyond the four walls of the church? Locally and globally, how are they serving, meeting needs, sharing the gospel?

Look at those four components. They’re all important. I mean, sometimes the church will know the word, but there’s no love. Or sometimes they’re really loving, but they actually drifted from scripture. Those four, as you consider and pray about your home church. And I encourage you to find one church. There’s so many good ones. Don’t just drift and float and have four churches you show up once in a while. Connect and serve, go deep, and then make that your home church. No church is going to be perfect as have been covered in this series. And so make it a better place. Look into connect, look into serve. Church is a place where you can use your gifts. Lives are going to be changed. You can team up.

You mentioned online, there’s some great stuff happening digitally, but that’s just a starting point. And you can receive content online, but it’s in person that you go. And the one another is a scripture, pray for one another, encourage one another, serve one another, love one another, forgive one another. All those relational pieces happen in a church family and you just can’t get all of those online. What I’ve noticed sometimes if I’ve been sick or we’re on vacation and, let’s say, I’m joining live-streaming, I don’t worship the same way. Now, my family probably doesn’t want to hear my singing voice too loud because I’m going to throw them off with a pitch in the tones. When you’re in a room with people and you’re worshiping together and it’s live and you enter in, it’s powerful and it’s transformative and we really need that experience of…

I think of our church, there’s so many things happening that I couldn’t do alone. We have drive-through prayer on Friday nights. We have a Good Samaritan fund to help people in need. There’s a lot of resources that are available in a church because there’s vision, there’s more people, there’s team, and those resources enable you to help more people and see more lives change and the kingdom built up.

So when you consider going to a church, be discerning, be prayerful. Once you choose a church, look to serve and get involved and connect with other people, find a Bible study. But also know that you’re going to grow there, the church is going to grow and you want to be part of the solutions in the church. Don’t just be complaining or a critic, but enter in and start to become part of the solutions because the church is the bride of Christ and we want to be ready for His return. We want to shine the light of Jesus in the sound and God’s plan, His primary plan has been through local churches and that won’t change this side of Heaven. And so let’s make the most of what God has laid out for us in scripture.

Mark Holland:

Yeah, I do remember Paul even saying, “Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together.” So that was even happening back then in Bible times. A lot of people were just saying, “Well, it’s just going to be me and God or just me and my wife and we’re going to do our own thing.” God really wants to have a bigger kind of relationship in our life because you can’t grow like you say on your own like that. I hate to use the term you got to have food inspectors, but you do need that. You do need accountability to other believers so they see what’s going on in your life and can help you or you can help others too. It’s not just so that you can be picked apart or whatever, or challenged, but you can challenge others in their faith as well.

Jesse Bradley:

That’s right.

Mark Holland:

Iron sharpens iron. It uses that term in the scripture.

Jesse Bradley:

Yes, that’s right. And in our country, we’re less sociable now, the studies say, and we’re less connected now and we don’t need isolation because isolation opens the door and the devil works when you’re just isolated alone. But when we’re in community, there’s a sharpening, iron sharpens iron, there’s accountability, and there’s so much more life and encouragement. It’s a shift in the paradigm instead of just me first. And we don’t want to be in a me first attitude.

Mark Holland:

Yeah, kind of a consumer relationship with church.

Jesse Bradley:

Right. And instead we want to think we, we more than me. And sometimes in the West Coast it’s very me oriented. So we want to break that norm in our society and we want to make it about we. Where’s the community? Where’s the family? When there’s a lot of generations and nations and ethnicities combining together in our church family, it is rich. It’s the body of Christ. It’s more like Heaven. And when you enter in, you learn from other people in a Bible study, they’re going to share things you didn’t think about. They have a perspective and a testimony. You can share your story more and you enter into a community that is actually going to help your growth in your walk with God.

We don’t just need information online. We need the transformation. And that happens life to life, person to person. And when someone’s praying with you and for you, it is powerful. We have that after every service, people making decisions, putting their trust in Christ for the first time. That kind of life transformation. It really takes a community to disciple people. It’s not just one mentor, but you need a lot of different personalities, a lot of different mentors. And that is a dynamic that you can’t create alone. It can’t create just online and it’s rich. It’s how God’s wired us, and we need to walk in that together.

Also, think of John 17 where Jesus’ longest prayer is for the unity of the body because when we’re united together, the world’s going to see Jesus clearer. If we’re all just doing our own thing, independent style, you don’t see the body of Christ, you don’t see the real love in the community. And I understand that sometimes people have had bad experiences in a church and that’s real, and there’s a healing journey there, there’s forgiveness, there’s grace. But then when we’ve been hurt in relationships, so often God will heal through a positive experience. If you’ve had a bad relationship with someone you dated, but then God brings in, let’s say, someone really solid who loves Jesus and treats you right, there’s a lot of healing.

Well, same with churches. You might have one bad experience, but then find a place that’s healthy and God will bring a lot of healing. Just because you’ve been hurt in the past or disappointed, don’t remove yourself into a position of isolation, because not where your ultimate healing will come. There might be a season where you step back, but now reenter into the family and take those relationship risks and let people build you up in the faith, receive love, receive comfort, receive words of encouragement from other people.

And I just think community, it’s one of those things where when it’s healthy, it’s really good and you just know it. You just know when you step into great relationships where people are, Jesus is the center. You’re following Jesus. People are growing together. There’s new stories every week of life change. That kind of dynamic. There’s embers spiritually alone, but when we come together, there’s a bonfire. And God does an incredible work when His people come together. God’s word, God’s spirit, God’s people. And we need a spiritual fire. We’re not going to do it alone. We need each other.

There’s not a lot of Christians comparatively to other parts of the nation where we live in the sound. And so we really need each other. That’s the bottom line. We need God, we need each other. God has laid out a plan for healthy environments, healthy churches, and that’s what we need to create together. And you might step into a church where you change the culture. That’s great. You’re a culture changer. Be biblical, be full of truth, full of love, and let God’s light shine through you. And the culture can change at a church. It really can.

Mark Holland:

I’ve heard the term to describe the church sometimes it’s kind of like a spiritual hospital. Do you think that that is an accurate description of what a church can be?

Jesse Bradley:

I think there’s a number of metaphors you can use. I think we don’t want to turn it into a cruise ship where everyone just shows up and expects them to be served. We’ve come to serve, not be served. But I think a hospital’s a real place. There’s so many stories of people coming to our church and experiencing incredible healing, that’s both spiritual, there’s physical stories of cancer being taken away. There’s also relational healing, emotional healing. So, yes, a place of healing.

I also think it’s a place of training. In Ephesians Chapter 4, “The church is a place where you come and you’re equipped.” You learn how to study the Bible. You learn how to pray, you learn how to share your faith. You learn how to reach the nations. And when you come in, you learn what your gifts are and you start to use those gifts. And it’s a building up of the body towards unity, towards maturity. And the Kingdom of God is not passive. You don’t just watch it on a screen. It’s participatory. It’s active. And we have the honor. What an honor that God invites us to build up His kingdom?

We also need to go where people are, but the church is that gathering place, an Ecclesia, and it’s that gathering and scattering, gathering and scattering. Gathering on Sunday, maybe for an hour, but our faith isn’t compartmentalized to one hour, one place or one day. It’s where we live, work, learn, or play. We’re abiding with Jesus and bearing much fruit. And when you come back to church, you get built up and there’s healing and training, and then you go out and you’re on a mission during the entire week, and then you’re coming back and hopefully you have some other touch points during the week, Bible studies and some other training times, prayer times.

But there’s a rhythm to the spiritual life and Sundays is important. Paul says it’s the first day of the week. You’re giving, you’re attending, you’re connecting, you’re serving. It sets the tone for the rest of the week. And when you get filled up on Sunday, that’s a meal. It’s not your only meal. You want to be in those habits of reading the Bible during the week, listening to radio and worship that’s going to build you up. You can build up those habits during the week, but Sunday sets the tone. And when a family goes and worships together… Before the pandemic, the average was like 1.5 times during the month a family would go to church or an individual. But we want to see that four times.

Instead of just waking up and saying, “Well, what’s on TV? What’s the game? How’s the weather? I don’t know who’s preaching this weekend?” Instead of that mindset in a family when it’s like, “We’re going to church,” that’s a given. Unless someone’s sick or unless we’re out of town, but we’re at church every weekend. That’s just what we do. And when you start with that commitment, seek first the Kingdom of God, all the blessings come. And I just say it’s such a big difference when a family is in that pattern versus a, “Well, I don’t know. What do we feel like? Let’s just watch a short video of 10 minutes instead on YouTube and then we’ll just call that church.” It’s not the same experience. And yeah, we want to go deep with that.

Mark Holland:

What about the benefits of going to church as a family? Kids need to be brought up in the admonition of the Lord, and of course it starts at the home, but how does kids in Sunday School programs and these kinds of things, why is that important to benefit the family and they can get that at church?

Jesse Bradley:

That’s right.

Mark Holland:

How does that work?

Jesse Bradley:

That’s a great point. It’s a partnership between the church and the home. Kids spend more time at home, so home’s the primary place to train your kids in their faith. Kids need more than just academic training. They need spiritual guidance and food and nourishment. And sometimes parents will get a little lazy and there’s like, “Yeah, I just want to livestream from my car as I’m doing my workout.” And the kids don’t get anything. The kids are, it’s not even crumbs spiritually. So as you serve your kids and care about your kids and their souls, they have hungry souls, they need food, bring them to church because parents alone can’t disciple kids. They need a whole community. They need teachers and mentors and friends and peers. And that dynamic right there is what happens at a church. And so it’s at both end, at home and at church. Home is primary, church is secondary, but church is instrumental. It’s essential. And the kids are going to get built up.

Mark Holland:

Has an outreach to the community too, whether it’s a Vacation Bible School or one of these kinds of outreaches. I know as a young person, my family didn’t go to church, but my neighbor brought me to Sunday School and that’s where I got those first seeds planted. I remember the flannel grams and things like that-

Jesse Bradley:

There you go.

Mark Holland:

… that I don’t know if they still use flannel grams in church and Sunday School.

Jesse Bradley:

Maybe not.

Mark Holland:

Maybe not. It’s probably more video now.

Jesse Bradley:

I love it though. It’s classic.

Mark Holland:

But, yeah, it’s just those… And it was a place that I really enjoyed, and again, it planted seeds in my life as a young person.

Jesse Bradley:

That’s it. We have hundreds of kids from our community that come and they come for VBS. They’re coming in three weeks. And you know what? For a lot of them, they don’t come from a family where they’re going to church or they even know the Lord and the kids will lead. Sometimes the kid leads the family spiritually and the kid loves it so much, they’re asking the parents, “Can we go? I want to go again this week. Are we going to church?” And eventually the parents say, “Oh, fine.” And then they go and they realize, wow, this is great for our family.

When you are in a great place spiritually, it flows into every part of the family life. It flows into the health of the marriage, it flows into the relationships with kids honoring parents and parents building up kids. It changes the environment at home. When you take that first step spiritually and make that commitment and you get in that habit and you seek God and now God’s presence and Jesus is at the center of the home, the home is a different place. And sometimes kids will start that. But, yes, that outreach for kids is powerful, what happens through those kids and their pure hearts. They love God. They want to know Jesus, and they want their parents also to know Jesus at home. And God is transforming the lives of many families.

Mark Holland:

Yeah, you’re right. Kids do kind of sometimes become the evangelists for the family. They get the whole family involved. One last part of the benefits of getting involved. What is your opinion on small groups? How important are small groups? Because I don’t know how big Grace Community Church is, but some churches are quite large, but that is the place where you find out about maybe small groups, home groups.

Jesse Bradley:

That’s right.

Mark Holland:

How important is that to your ministry there?

Jesse Bradley:

Yes. Grace, we’re a church of, I think there’s 5,000 names, but let’s say over 1,000 on a weekend. But we have over 50 life groups. We call them life groups. We have about 50. Over 55% of our weekend attendance is in life groups, and there’s like 84 leaders overall. We say that we’re a church of life groups, not just with a couple of groups. And those life groups mean scripture, it’s the relationships in the community with each other that’s built into friendships, and then also it’s prayer, and then it’s outreach.

And I think churches can feel big. People want to be known. And when you start to meet with the same people every week and you’re in the word together and you pray together every week, there’s a bond that happens. And we’re built for community. And we’re not just going to… Yes, it’s great to show up in the worship and the word as the whole church family, but then you need to have some people that really know you and you really know them, and they can speak into your life and you can walk with them and you can talk about the specifics of what you’re going through in your situations, and they’re going to share wisdom with you. That’s how the body is built up. And I think the best environment for that is the small groups.

And so I’d encourage people to find that and to find a church with small groups. Bible study fellowship’s a great option across the nation too. It brings the word.

Mark Holland:

Yeah, my wife does that.

Jesse Bradley:

Yeah, that’s right. And there’s a lot of ways to form those groups, and some groups are online. We’ve had more groups online too, that works for some people geographically spread out, but get in that Bible study and go deep with the Lord.

Mark Holland:

Well, we’ve gone pretty deep on this question. Why is attending church helpful for your Christian walk? Talking with Pastor Jesse Bradley of Grace Community Church in Auburn. I think you’ve definitely given us some ideas on why church is so important to your Christian walk and the benefits of getting involved. Again, for people maybe in that area in Auburn, and they want to find out more about what you’re doing, how do people find you again?

Jesse Bradley:

Yes. Our website is graceinauburn.com and check out the livestreaming. You can check us out on social media, graceinauburn.com, and if you have any questions, let us know. And I know you might think, well, he’s a pastor, of course, he’s going to encourage people to go to church. I would just say, if I’m not a pastor, just reading my Bible and just seeing the benefits of walking close with God with a church family, there’s no question. And I encourage you to find a church. Wherever you are, find a church, connect and serve and just seek God with a group of people, hopefully from different generations and ethnicities in the fullness of the body of Christ, and seek God’s presence together. You won’t regret finding a healthy church and growing in your walk with God.

Mark Holland:

The heart of Pastor Jesse Bradley, Head Pastor at Grace Community Church in Auburn. Thank you so much for talking with us today, Jesse.

Jesse Bradley:

Keep up the good work. Thanks for spreading hope across the sound.

Mark Holland:

And you’ve been listening to the Purposely Equipped series, Why Church? And on this episode, the question, why is attending church helpful to your Christian walk? Featuring Pastor Jesse Bradley of Grace Community Church in Auburn. For more details about the church, visit them online at graceinauburn.com. Please leave us a review of this message so more people can discover this podcast and find more episodes of Purposely Equipped at onpurposely.com.