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?
April 8, 2007 at 1:31 am
Hmm…that’s a tough one to figure out. I think it’s important that worship is at the top of each of those lists.
I would personally break it down like this:
Worship
community
service/evangelism
With a heavy emphasis on the application of all the Gifts of the Spirit in all of those.
April 10, 2007 at 1:01 am
I agree that worship needs to come first because we can’t do anything without Him, but as our friend points out in “Singers to Servants,” worship involves much more than singing. It has to be lived out. Maybe what we term “worship” would more accurately be called corporate praise.
So. . . next has to be community, because we can’t do much alone, any more than my hand can do much without the rest of my body. And, if we’re doing community well, we will be discipling and teaching the Word. If we really want to return to the pattern of the early church, community will be much more purposeful than just a series of social events.
Next in importance has to be evangelism. That’s the only work we can do that has eternal fruit. As much as Jesus loves the poor and wants us to reach out to them, the thing that’s always closest to the Father’s heart is bringing his lost kids home.
I don’t mean to minimize service. We don’t have to look far to find people in desperate need, and being Jesus to them can open up their hearts to receive Him. Jesus constantly met the needs of those around Him, and we should strive to do the same. I just think we need to keep our priorities in order, or even the best intentions become dead works.
I really hate formulas, especially religious ones. So much of what it means to “be the church” works together, that I’m not sure we can compartmentalize it very neatly. What is God’s heart saying to us? That’s what I’m desperate for, and I think that’s what the world is desperate for. We just haven’t stopped long enough to realize it. “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). No formulas–just pressing in to Him.