Sermon audio Sermon manuscript: A few generations back there was a more widely spread notion that it was important to belong to a congregation. Most people could say that they were members at this congregation or that congregation. Today this is no longer the case. But it is important that we do not look at the past with rose colored glasses. Even when more people held membership in congregations, the good reasons for being a member weren’t at all clear to them. A lot of people were members of a congregation because that was what was socially expected of them. If you weren’t a member of a congregation, then where were you going to have your funeral? Or another reason why people might belong to a congregation was because it was a family tradition. They were brought up in such-and-such a congregation and so that is where they kept on going. Or maybe there were friends, or maybe being a member of the congregation was good for business—a good place to network. More reasons could be found without too much difficulty. But these old reasons for why people were members of congregations were inadequate because they were nowhere near important enough. The decline of congregations across the board is proof of both the shallowness of people’s commitments as well as how widespread that shallowness was. The reason why people aren’t members of congregations and aren’t coming to church is because it isn’t useful to them. Those old reasons aren’t compelling enough. The social expectation for everyone to be a member of a congregation is pretty much gone. If you need a clergyperson for a baptism, wedding, or funeral, you can find one to hire for the occasion without too much difficulty. Family ties to congregations have lessened over the years. Finding friends and business contacts is easier to do in other places besides the congregation. Times have changed. This is not all bad, though. Young people are finding these old reasons for being a member of a congregation inadequate. Christians should find them inadequate too. There is much more involved in being a member of a congregation than what we’ve talked about so far this morning. Christians are children of God by virtue of their baptism. Christians are pilgrims and strangers in this world, just like all the faithful have been before us. That makes for a difficult life. We are powerfully opposed on all sides. The world rejects us just like Jesus was rejected. Even people as close as our own family are likely to hinder our pilgrimage, as Jesus says, “A man’s enemies will be within his own house.” The devil tempts and torments Christians to a much greater degree than he works on the worldlings, because he already has them in his pocket. Our own sinful flesh is fully and completely eager to submit and succumb to the devil’s devices, and it often does. Christians fall into grievous and shameful sin. Year after year Christians are assaulted from within and without. They stumble, fall, and (God-willing) rise back up again to faith in Christ rather than living according to the desires of their flesh. In the midst of these great troubles all the old reasons for being a member of a congregation offer no help at all. In fact, they are likely to be more of a hindrance rather than a help, for we are all too eager to believe that there is no battle involved at all with living as a Christian. If our own congregation is more concerned about finding some way to look attractive to prospective members rather than helping people walk the difficult pilgrim road as a Christian, then it is easy for us to go along with that. Then we don’t have to fight. Then we don’t have to be concerned about whether we are indeed Christians, whether we will be going to heaven or to hell. We all naturally want to sleep our way through life as far as our conscience is concerned, and so if the church is helping in that endeavor, then it would be better if there were no such churches at all. They’re not helping. They’re actually hurtin