Church: Monstrous or Misunderstood (Part 3)

We went to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving along with our three dogs.  Hank and Drover are fairly low-maintenance (except for when we are having to chase them down all over town after a fence breach), so the change in location didn’t affect them much.  However, Nika’s world drastically changes when we go to Sterling because she has to share the house with Baxter and Bailey, my parents’ miniature schnauzers.  As you can imagine, feeding time gets especially hectic.  One evening, I filled up Nika’s bowl next to me as my dad was hand-feeding the schnauzers to try and keep them from stealing her food.  Of course, no dog ever wants to eat her own food if she can get to another dog’s food, and being hand-fed is far superior to eating straight from the bowl.  Thus, Nika kept sneaking over to my dad with an “I’m not getting fed” look so that he would hand-feed her some of the schnauzers’ food.  She’s not spoiled at all. 

One of the main complaints that people give about church is that they aren’t getting fed.  Their pastor may have set out a perfectly nutritional bowl of truth for them that Sunday, but they claim that they haven’t been fed because the content of the message wasn’t what they wanted or it wasn’t given in the way that they wanted.  If the local church bends to this expectation of making sure that all people feel fed, then its mission is reduced to satisfying the shifting and conflicting demands and temper tantrums of its people.  Preferences take priority over truth.  Division replaces unity.  Ultimately, the church service becomes about me instead of Jesus Christ.  So, if the church doesn’t just exist to provide one massive, all-satisfying, long-lasting feast every Sunday, then what is it really supposed to do?

Before we jump into the specifics, I want to reiterate one important point.  As we already discovered in Part 2, the church is comprised of individual people.  The Church cannot do anything that the individuals aren’t doing.  If we think the church (whether universal or local) should grow in kindness, then we ourselves must grow in kindness.  If we believe that the church is supposed to care for orphans, then we must ask ourselves what we are doing to help that cause.  Since we are the Church, we are called to put feet to the mission of the Church.  With that in mind, let’s take a brief look at 11 of the activities that Scripture says should characterize the Church (both universally and locally). 

1)  Making Disciples

            This command that is given to believers, and thus to the church, in Matt. 28:19, 20 encompasses all of the other activities that we will talk about.  It is the “big idea” or overarching goal for this age.  A disciple is a learner, or follower.    

2) Evangelism/Witnessing

            The first step in making a disciple is introducing the potential learner to the Teacher.  Acts 1:8 calls us to be witnesses in all the world to what Christ has done.  It’s not our job to save people.  God is the only One who can draw them to Himself through belief in His Son (Jn. 6:44).  However, He has very clearly commanded us to tell the world the Good News (i.e., the Gospel) that Jesus died for our sins and came back to life three days later (1 Cor. 15:3, 4).  We are to bear witness, or share, what Jesus has done in our own lives in a way that is attractive to people.  This is not at all to say that we should try to just say what they want to hear.  The truth is uncomfortable at first for those who hear (Scripture says that to the unsaved, believers are the stench of death in 2 Cor. 2:15, 16), and we are not supposed to try and erase that discomfort or guilt.  What I do mean by sharing the Gospel in an attractive way is that we should be clear, accurate, loving, gentle, humble, and tactful in our speech as opposed to being vague, belittling, self-righteous, arrogant, condescending, or argumentative.  The goal is never to win an argument, but give people who are blind to the truth an opportunity to see.          

3)  Water Baptism

            Once an individual has come to trust in Jesus as his or her Savior, that individual is saved forever.  Water baptism is included in the Matt. 28:19, 20 passage as well as several other passages, and it is simply a symbolic public declaration of what has transpired in the heart of the new believer.  Water baptism communicates to all around that the one being baptized is a follower of Jesus.

4) Growth

            Disciples should constantly be growing in spiritual maturity.  Maturity comes with daily putting into practice the principles that are learned from the Teacher (Jesus).  There is a crisis of developmental stagnation that occurs when of an over-abundance of basic knowledge exists apart from the deeper understanding and discernment that blossoms out of obedience and practice.  Hebrews 5:12, 13 describes this ancient problem.  This stunted  growth also stems from “putting the weight of our spiritual maturity on the pastor’s shoulders,” as Wendy Pope recently put it at the Warrior’s of the Light Women’s conference.  While it is true that church leaders are held accountable for the way they shepherd their congregations, we do them an injustice to assume that we should be totally dependent on them for our spiritual growth.  We as individuals are ultimately responsible for the choices we make.  Those choices either line up with the instructions of Jesus and lead to life, growth, and maturity, or they miss the mark and make us dull, disillusioned, and foolish.  Just like we cannot expect to thrive physically on one giant feast per week, we cannot expect to experience life transformation simply by listening to a sermon on Sunday.  We have to learn to feed ourselves by reading Scripture on our own, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us through it, and living out what we learn in each moment of every day.  Spiritual growth is a constant process.            

5)  Teaching

            Acts 2:42 paints a pretty clear picture of what the gatherings of the early church looked like.  Teaching of the Word of God was one of the primary components, just as it should be today.  Teaching within the church comes in various forms, only one of which is a sermon.  Older women are called to teach the younger women how to be loving wives and mothers (Titus 2:3-5).  Older men are also to teach the younger men how to live sensibly and above reproach, largely through their own example (Titus 2:1, 2, 6-8).  Parents are to teach their children (Dt. 11:18, 19).  All teaching should be examined to see whether it matches up with the Bible (Acts 17:11), and teaching is not a task which should be taken lightly (Jas. 3:1). 

6)  Prayer

            Prayer is yet another key activity that is mentioned in Acts 2:42.  1 Thessalonians 5:17 instructs us all to “pray without ceasing.”  I’ve heard it described this way before: “Prayer is to our spiritual life what breathing is to our physical life.”  We couldn’t imagine going through a day with only three breaths of air at mealtimes.  It’s no wonder why we find ourselves spiritually faint when we limit our prayers to three or four one-minute speed-chats per day.  We need to be in constant communication with our Father, and we have free access to Him at all times!  Beyond the simple necessity for prayer, there is something special about coming together with other believers to talk to God (Mt. 18:19, 20; Jas. 5:14, 15).  Prayer is a powerful and unifying act that draws us closer to our Father and to each other.    

7)  Fellowship

            Acts 2:42 also talks about fellowship and eating together.  God created us for relationship, both with Him and with each other.  He delights in our enjoyment of each other.  Eating together breaks down walls, promotes vulnerability, and opens doors for conversation.  My husband and I are so thankful for believing friends with whom we have shared food, tears, laughter, frustration, and hope.  We’ve played together, struggled together, forgiven together, learned together, repented together, and lived life together.  Unearthly beauty emanates from pure relationships in which both parties are transparently known, and yet still loved.  Hebrews 10:24-25 encourages us not to neglect this precious gift of fellowship.      

8)  Equipping for Service

            Ephesians 4:11-16 is another key passage about the mission of the church and what it takes to make disciples.  A huge responsibility of the church is to equip individuals for service: to give them the knowledge and tools they need to do the good works that God created them to do.  Some are called to the church offices of elder or deacon, and others are called to be pastors and teachers; however, these individuals make up a small percentage of the total Christian population.  They are just one small part of the Church.  What service are the rest of us supposed to be doing?  1 Corinthians 12 explains that all believers are given spiritual gifts for the building up of the church as a whole.  We can’t all do every job, and we weren’t made to do that, but God has gifted us and molded us specifically for the service that He has called us to do.  Other church members can help us discover our gifts and develop those gifts.  Every single believer is needed to play his or her own role in the church.  Anything less results in dysfunction of the body (read 1 Corinthians 12 for an awesome illustration of how the church is like a physical body).             

9)  Edification

            Many of the activities we have discussed already work hand in hand for the edification, or building up, of the body of Christ (the Church) in unity, knowledge, and maturity.  Our words and actions toward each other should always be evaluated in light of this common goal for the church.  Are we building up Christ’s Church or tearing it down?

10)  Communion   

            Communion is an ordinance that was instituted by Jesus on the last night that He celebrated the Passover with His twelve disciples (Matt. 26:26-28), which was also the night He was betrayed.  Communion is a symbolic act in which believers remember Christ’s death on the cross and look forward to His return.  This ordinance draws our attention back to the reason the Church is able to exist in the first place.      

11)  Worship

            Finally, the Church should be characterized by worship of the One who saved us.  Although this is often expressed through song (Eph. 5:19), it is also expressed through obedience and the laying down of our lives, of our own will, in each step that we take through this life (Rom. 12:1).  All that we do should point back to Him, and not to us.  He gets the glory and praise, because He is the only One who is worthy. 

            Whew!  There is so much more that could be said about what the Church is supposed to do (the majority of the New Testament is dedicated to the subject!).  One truth I love about being a part of the Church is that it isn’t all about fearfully and robotically following a list of do’s and don’ts.  It’s not about pretending to be someone that I’m not.  Everything I have listed here is a gift for us to live this life the way God designed life to be lived and to be a part of something that is so much grander than anything we could construct on our own.  It’s about relationships, with God and with each other.  When we truly understand it and accept it as the gift that it is, we find a world of deep joy, freedom, hope, and belonging.  Next week, I’ll wrap up this series by sharing a little bit about the local churches I have been a part of and how God has used each of them to shape and impact my life!