Making the right move?

We’re moving house. And boy, is it stressful!

Not only was finding the new place a total slog, but also having to think about nurseries, schools, safety, and so on made me wonder why we really wanted to move at all. Why did we want to move? Why does anyone want to move?

Often it’s for reasons like wanting a bigger house or to be closer to work or schools or family and friends. Some-times it’s wanting to live in a safer or more relaxed environment. And all these considerations have their place. But, for the Christian, what should be the primary motivation for moving house or area? What should be the guiding force in deciding to relocate? Or, if through a change in circumstance, work or otherwise, we have no option but to move, how do we decide where to live? To begin to answer that question we need to look at some key biblical principles…

Top priority

The Bible is clear that while things like caring for family are incredibly important, the basic need of every Christian is ongoing input from the Bible. Without it the Christian will not be ‘trained in righteousness… and equipped for every good work’ (2 Timothy 3.16, 17). The Word is the food of faith, a necessity to our Christian life.

One may say we could be built up by God’s Word by reading books or listening to tapes. And that is certainly the case. However, the Bible is also extremely clear about our need for each other as Christians. While our individualistic society may have affected our thinking and cause us to balk at this, the Bible sees it as a given that we live out our lives in the context of Christian community. Hebrews 3.12-14, 10.24,25 show our desperate need for each other’s encouragement. Ephesians 4 spells out why this is the case. When we become Christians we become part of a body, God’s church, and the way we grow is as part of that body. In a human body, if we cut off a limb or remove an organ from the rest of the body, it does not flourish: it dies. And so it is that God calls us to live in the context of a healthy Christian family, all using our own particular gifts to make ‘the body grow so it grows up in love’.

The church

It is in this context of living as God’s body of people that we are to be taught his Word. Ephesians 4.11-13 unites our need of God’s Word and our need of God’s people and shows how they should work together. Paul tells us that it is the Word that is the foundation and fuel for all that happens in a church family. In every Christian church some will be gifted to teach ‘to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ’. The point of being taught the Bible is to be equipped for what we talked about above: the whole business of serving each other. The Bible trains us to be a good family and to use our own particular God-given gifts to serve each other and so grow up together ‘to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’. To summarise, we need God’s Word working in God’s people so that they work to love and serve each other.

Let’s get moving…

But what has all this got to do with the question we started with: whether we should move house and where we should move to? Well, these principles show us that as we think about moving, we need to move somewhere where we can be part of a church. If the Bible sees it as such a priority for us to exist as a body, growing together, serving each other as we are fed by God’s Word, then as we think about moving it should be our priority too. Above finding the perfect house. Above living near the best schools. These things may well be on our list of priorities but priority number one is for a church, and not any old church. Rather it should be a church where God’s Word is preached clearly and faithfully and where people encourage each other and use their own particular gifts to the good of the body

Working it out in practice

These principles show us that while the Christian has much freedom in where to move to, there will be some unwise choices. Moving to the country may sound idyllic, but if we are getting on in years and the nearest good church is an hour’s drive away, we may need to abandon our dream of the perfect rose-covered cottage. Many people move somewhere where the nearby church is as dead as a dodo, hoping to be able to make a difference. In this situation the key question to ask is what the leadership is like. If they are clearly and faithfully teaching the Bible, then you could certainly think about joining in and serving. If that isn’t happening, or worse, those in charge don’t believe the Bible, it’s unlikely you’ll make a lot of difference. The church has been organised by God to be led, so when the leadership is bad there is a fundamental problem. You can encourage individuals and run a good home group, but on Sunday your work is undone by what is said from the front. That said, some persevering souls stick out hard years to then try and influence the choice of the next leaders — and succeed. However, it is a long term and risky strategy, something that isn’t wise to choose to go for.

For someone about to move, the wise choice is to focus on first finding a church where God’s Word is faithfully preached and people love and serve each other. One may choose to move to be a part of a big, established, thriving church. Or one may move in order to serve in the start of a new church, where the leadership want to see God’s Word preached in an area where there has been a lack of sound gospel preaching. Both would be wise choices.

Of course, moving with church as top priority can be costly. Next month as EN talks to people who have faced such costs, we find out how they coped and how they made the right move.

Christians moving house, part 1

Top priority

The church

Let’s get moving…

Working it out in practice

Elisa Beynon

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