The local church is near to the heart of God. Throughout the New Testament Scriptures, we find God working in and through small assemblies of believers. We find Paul laboring to start and establish them, writing to them, praying over them. The book of Revelation begins with chapters of short letters to specific local churches full of praise and reproof from the One who sees their inner workings.

Life in the local church should be near to our hearts, as well. (We’ll be spending the month of October addressing this topic here at Scripture Dig, by the way!) But life in the local church is rarely easy- while God may look at us with eyes of grace and see us as saints, we still can act very un-saintly. Life in the church can be fraught with wounds, strange inter-personal politics, misunderstandings, frustration, lack of direction, overburdened workers, and sin in all its lovely forms.

So, what’s a believer to do?

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