What is Church anyway?

[Note:  I posted this in the "What to Expect" section and thought I'd put it here also:

What is Church anyway? 

​Christians have been meeting on the first day of the week [Sunday] since the first [what we call] Easter Sunday, the Day our Lord rose from the tomb triumphant.  There have always been a remnant of believers in every moment of time since.  There have also been deceivers and pretenders since that day as well.  When the Roman emperors were burning Christians at the stake and putting them in the Coliseum to be mutilated and murdered, there were not very many phony Christians, because it certainly didn't pay for one to call themselves a Christian only to be persecuted.  The persecuted Church is a pure Church.  The persecution of the Church, and the fact it has survived for 2 plus millennia,  proves beyond the shadow of a doubt the Church is real and is made alive by Christ Himself.  

Those who are truly born again know this to be a fact:  Plain and simply put, Jesus is alive! He doesn't ask much out of His followers, but His Word says we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is....

Now we are living in a nation whom God has blessed.  Persecution is minimal at best, and so we see the deceivers and pretenders all over the television and radio preaching a gospel which doesn't exist [various themes: prosperity doctrine, charismatic movements etc]  If there ever were to become a serious persecution of the Church in this country, we would hear a vacuum sound as all these deceivers would disappear.  

Having said that, we also see a time in our history when Churches are getting rid of services, shortening them, having them early so people can come and "get it over with" so they can make the "most of their Sunday".  Beloved, the very least we can give the Lord is the Sunday worship services.  Yes, our Church at Bethabara is not exempt from the Sunday evening no shows, but we will continue to meet, and every time we gather God gives the blessing....We are a Church full of true believers.  No, even I as the pastor am not to judge, but do you know how I know our Church is full of true believers?? Because if they didn't truly love the Lord, they would have no other reason to come.  If you are seeking entertainment in a worldly sense, you probably won't last long here....but if you come with a desire to worship the Lord, to be with people who have that same desire, to be with people who genuinely love the Lord and each other, a desire to learn more about the Lord, a desire for your children to be taught the Bible and to be encouraged by the kindest of youth leaders [ok I know that sounds disingenuous but I'm serious :) ] then Bethabara may be the Church home for you....We are not pushy, if you come to visit we won't be at your door the next day or next week wondering where you are....unless you ask us to be....if you need a Church family, we are here for you.....God bless you 

Pastor Scott