During my service year, getting a new church to attend in a new town was very hard for me. I went round checking churches to see which one was suitable to meet my spiritual needs until I found a small church in the corner of the town that placed premium on teaching the word of God systematically. I identified with that small church till the end of my service year. If I return to that town, i'll surely worship with them again.

I won't be comfortable to stay in a church where there is no sound teaching of God's word. In a generation where some have turned church to an entertainment centre and another club gathering in the name of Jesus, we need to re emphasize the reason the church exist.

Previously, we emphasized that the church is the ground and pillar of truth( 1 Tim 3:15). One of the ways that truth can be reinforced and propagated is through the accurate preaching and teaching of God's word. The church is a spiritual school where we learn the oracles of God.

The primary means through which the mind of God can be conveyed to us is via the preaching and teaching of God's word not prophecy. My former barber was fond of inviting me to his church just to be prophesied upon. Every time I met him, he always invited me to attend his prophetic church. He never invited me to a bible study meeting or emphasized the teaching ministry of his pastor to me, everything centred around "come and see my prophet".

After a while, I started calling him "prophetic barber". His pastor built his church around prophecy instead of the teaching of God's word. As a pastor over a church, it is wrong to build your church on gifts alone. The day you are off the scene, that church will likely die because there may be no one to "perform" for the people. If you check churches that has lasted, they are churches built on God's word.

Any church that replaces quality preaching and teaching time with other things is just a social gathering. Entertainment is not the reason the church exist.

Acts of the Apostles 5:42 says, "And EVERY DAY, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to TEACH AND PREACH this message: “Jesus is the Messiah".

The church in Act of apostles is a portrait of what the new testament church should look like. Their strength was not in the manifestation of the gifts only but they combined it with teaching and preaching. They didn't rush that aspect, they gave it quality time. Same is expected of today's church.

Welfare is good, worship evenings are not bad but one of the primary reasons the church exist is to devote quality time to the preaching and teaching of sound doctrine.