The Church

Well we are getting ready to head out to Uganda today, but I wanted to write a few things the Lord was speaking to me about the Church. I do not think any of this is earth shattering but hopefully it will speak to some. In Ephesians Paul talks about the different offices or positions within the church, and then speaks of it's purpose. In reality the church (local) has two functions - inreach and outreach. It does this first by preparing the members for works of service - visiting the sick, helping the poor, taking care of widows and orphans, ect. The second part is through building up of the body.

One of the neat things is to figure out how to prepare people for works of service. I think that there are four steps. The first is that people need to be taught correctly what they are supposed to do - not just a feel good message but a call to simple minded obedience. Secondly they need to have that modelled for them so they can see how it looks in real life. This is an area that we really lack in for the church as a whole. Obviously some do it better than others. Thirdly they need to get out and do the works of service themselves. The church needs to provide the opportunities and to encourage each person to engage. Lastly, for this to really work, those that do it need to then teach others also.

Building up the body involves both numerical growth and spiritual growth of the individual. This is accomplished in a number of ways and should result in believers who work together in unity, who are doctrinely sound, mature, look more and more like Christ, and each person is using his/her giftings for the body as a whole. What the world should see is a body of people who love each other in an amazing way, love them (the world) without cause and love God as ultimate in their lives.

O that we could function like this! I believe we can. Next I will share some thoughts on Christian community and how that can help us accomplish this goal.