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I’ve written the last few days about church: that’s it’s more than grand cathedrals and that its members are to be the church, not just go to church. For some of you, this may be a tough sell. It’s a different message from what you’re used to. For example, a pastor of a large church, bemoaning the drop in attendance because of bad weather, recently wrote:
Nothing can replace being here in person. The purpose of the church is to gather in worship and glorify the Lord together.
Really? “The purpose of the church is to gather in worship and glorify the Lord together” sounds good, but is that the purpose of the church? Not according to the Apostle Paul:
He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. (Ephesians 4.11 – 13, MSG, emphasis mine)
The mission of the church is to train, and there are few, if any, skills that can be trained in a large group environment. For example, we don’t learn to play piano by attending concerts! Concerts are important for inspiration and motivation, but the work of training people to make music happens in the teacher’s studio and the student’s practice room.
The pastor’s ministry strategy is not to put on a worship service every week. It’s to invest in people. And those people (“reliable”–not necessarily ordained, seminary-educated people!) train others. This is the counsel the Apostle Paul gave to the young pastor Timothy:
The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2)
I’ll challenge you on that point, my friend. Education and training are one of the purposes of the church, but so too is worship and discipline. You know the verse from TMS – Do not neglect gathering together, and all the more as the day draws near. Wish I could find it. Happy Easter to you and June.
Good word, Henry, and yours is the second challenge! June’s was the first. I didn’t mean to imply that there was no value to the Sunday morning service. I mentioned inspiration and motivation. There is also education (if people are listening to the sermon) and value in being together. (Hebrews 10.24, 25 is the Topical Memory System (TMS) verse you’re looking for.) Rick Warren has worship as one of five purposes, which is another way to say that Sunday worship is not the only purpose of the church, the point I was trying to make. Thanks for reading and for keeping me honest! And, yes, Happy Easter. He is risen!