“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” Romans 12:4-5 (NLT)

When it comes to church, God doesn’t want you just to attend—he wants you to belong.

The Bible says, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other” (Romans 12:4-5 NLT).

When I was pastor of Saddleback Church, I could always tell the difference between a church attender and a church member. An attender would come up to me in the grocery store and say, "Pastor Rick, I love your church." They’d say your church. But a member would say, "Pastor Rick, I love our church."

Have you made that jump? Have you made the switch from consumer to contributor, from attender to member, from longing to belonging? Here are three reasons why you should belong to a church family:

A church family helps you focus on God. These days it’s easy to get distracted by details, distractions, dead-ends, delays, and difficulties. But coming together with a church family will help you focus on God. The more you choose to focus on God, the bigger he gets in your mind and the smaller your problems become.

A church family helps you face life's problems. Right now, you’re in one of three positions. Either you just came out of a problem, you're in the middle of a problem, or you're headed into the next problem. Life is a series of problems that God never meant for you to handle on your own. That’s why he built a support group of people around you—the church—who are right there in the fight with you. You’re not alone.

A church family helps you fortify your faith. Fortify means to strengthen, to reinforce, and to develop. When you have relationships with other people in God's family, you get the right support. They encourage you to set the right priorities, helping you decide what's trivial and what matters most. This clarifies your values and strengthens your faith.

There are a lot of ideas in the world today that just aren’t true and that make it easy to lose sight of God’s purpose for your life. Belonging to a church family helps you focus on God, face life’s problems, and fortify your faith. And that will make all the difference in your life.