Last week, Bill Gualdoni talked with us about the importance of community in the church. He said that we should be intentional in our relationships, and that without a strong sense of community within the Body of Christ (church), we are missing out on one of the essential components of ‘being the church’.
This whole conversation about community brings up something that I’ve been pondering lately. If it is our goal to be the church in a biblical, authentic, and Christ-honoring way, then one of the first things we should do is ask ourselves what are the main functions of the Bride of Christ. What are those things that if we don’t do, we are missing an important component of being the church? It seems to me that if we can focus on these main functions/purposes of the church, and if we can do them well, then we will be well on our way to being an authentic, biblical church. Also, knowing what these things are will help us determine where our freedoms are in terms of how we go about being the church.
Not long ago I was asking someone what they thought these main functions/purposes were. He said that he thought they are laid out pretty well in Acts 2:42-47, and are specifically:
- Worship
- Evangelism
- Fellowship
- Teaching the Scriptures
- Serving
I talked to another guy about this and he said he thought the list looked like this:
- Worship
- Community
- Discipleship
- Service
- Outreach
I’ll throw out one more list from a book titled From the Ground Up: New Testament Foundations for the 21st Century Church:
- Worship
- Learning
- Fellowship
- Evangelism/Mission
What do you think?
