Kevin Swanson explains in this video that one issue in churches today is the issue of disconnect and a lack of Christian fellowship and accountability. We ought to pursue and cultivate godly relationships where both individuals can be sharpened and matured spiritually.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (NKJV) - "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

Well, it's because we live in a lost and lonely time. It's because the only form of church growth that is happening in any substantial way is the mega-church movement, which is going to fizzle because it's inherently non-relational. The church itself is struggling right now, and The most relevant thing we can do for the church is to, number one, preach the truth of God's Word to the specific issues of the day, hopefully with a relevant application of the principles of his Word. But we've got to do it within relationship. You know, it's interesting that Jesus looked at the rich young ruler and the Bible says he loved the man, he agape'd the man, and then he told the man the hardest thing you could ever say to him.

He said, I want you to sell all your goods, give to the poor, and then come and go find a good walking stiff and come follow me. That was a tough thing. It was a discipleship command. It was a pointed application. Well, that's what we do.

We make a very difficult message. We command people to repent of their sins, but we do it in relationship. We have to do it by loving them. So, it's absolutely essential. We form strong, strong relationships.

Very, very robust love for our brothers. But at the same time, we challenge them. We want to hear them confess their sins. We want to see them repent of their sins. If they're going through serious issues in their marriages, we got to love them.

We got to challenge them. We got to tell them to repent. We don't send them to some counselor who says, for a hundred bucks an hour I'll be your friend and tell you some wisdom. That's a pagan form of solving problems. No, we do it in relationship.

Nobody pays for our friendships. If we've got counseling issues in our church, we'll take care of them ourselves. By relationship, by earning the passport to look a brother in the eye and say, brother, you need to confess some sins here and get your marriage back on track. So this is what the Church of Jesus Christ is. This is what we do.