by David Gibson<\/p>\n
What if God gave us a choice of plans of salvation? Option A is the church plan. Option B is the non-church plan. In other words, if you want to be a part of the church, fine, but if you’d rather get to heaven without the church, that’s OK too!<\/p>\n
But what does the New Testament say? “For by one Spirit we were all <\/b>baptized into one body<\/strong><\/em> …” (I Corinthians 12:13 NASB). The body is the church, and the church is the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:12; Colossians 1:18, 24). The body is not a union in name only, but a practical, functioning fellowship (Ephesians 4:15-16). This means people worshiping and working together for a common cause and mutual encouragement.<\/p>\n Just how important is the church? “… Christ also is head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body … Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her<\/em>” (Ephesians 5:23, 25). It is “the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).<\/p>\n Being a part of the church is both easier and harder.<\/p>\n It is more challenging because we must work with others who may come from a very different background and who might not be easy to deal with. It is harder in that we have an obligation to help one another (Galatians 6:10).<\/p>\n However, being a part of the church is easier than trying to make it alone. The encouragement we receive is invaluable, especially in times of illness or loss. Being a functioning part of the church helps keep us from becoming self-centered (Philippians 2:1-4). It enables us to accomplish far more for the Lord than we could possibly do on our own, as our talents and resources are combined and coordinated under the direction of our elders.<\/p>\n And what is the church worth to you?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson What if God gave us a choice of plans of salvation? Option A is the church plan. Option B is the non-church plan. In other words, if you want to be a part of the church, fine, but if you’d rather get to heaven without the church, that’s OK too! So what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[448],"class_list":["post-89220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3818,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-possible-to-preach-christ-and-not-preach-baptism-or-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":89220,"position":0},"title":"Is It Possible to Preach Christ and Not Preach Baptism or the Church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Donald Townsley via Guardian of Truth, December 15, 1988 From time to time men set forth the doctrine that we should \"preach Christ\" and leave the controversial subjects of the plan of salvation and the church alone. Some say, \"just preach the man and not the plan\"; others say,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57963,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-lords-church-is-magnificent\/","url_meta":{"origin":89220,"position":1},"title":"The Lord’s Church Is Magnificent","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jim Ward via the Lost River Bulletin, Vol. 59, No. 2, Feb. 2009. The term church occurs nine times in the book of Ephesians with nine additional references to the church using the term body, and one each using household of God and temple, it is apparent that this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94178,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":89220,"position":2},"title":"The Church of Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Joe R. Price via The Spirit's Sword The expression \"church of Christ\" is a descriptive term of possession. The word church is a collective noun (like \"flock\" or \"family\"). The church is composed of saved people (Christians, the \"called out\" ones, Acts 2:41, 47). \"Church of Christ\" is used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90545,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-must-have-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":89220,"position":3},"title":"We Must Have the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Adam Faughn In our world, we sometimes hear people who speak of how they want a relationship with Jesus, but they do not want much (if anything) to do with the church. This is not new; in fact, some of you will remember the days when the saying, \"give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19293,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-makes-the-church-of-christ-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":89220,"position":4},"title":"What Makes the Church of Christ Different?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Billy Moore Question: \"You say the Church of Christ is not a Protestant denomina\u00adtion, but I know you protest the Catholic religion for I have read a lot of your writings, so what makes you different from the other churches. You look like one of many churches to me.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29780,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/identifying-a-new-testament-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":89220,"position":5},"title":"Identifying a New Testament Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Dewhirst Sentry Magazine, December 2002 Traditionally, we gospel preachers have spoken of \"identifying the New Testament church\" in an effort to distinguish it from the sects roundabout. But in so doing, we have sometimes obscured the true nature of the body of Christ. We begin to preach about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Magnifying_glass_with_focus_on_paper-300x169.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is the church worth?<\/h2>\n