I've been in churches all my life. For a long time, I understood the purpose of the church was to bring people to Christ. I grew up with a Gospel presentation in every sermon and an altar call at the end of each service. As I read the Scriptures, I began to question that premise. I read how the purpose of the church was "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Eph 4:12-14). So ... it was more internal than external ... and very few churches seemed intent on this particular purpose.
The question remains. Are we supposed to be aimed at unbelievers or believers? Are we supposed to be outward facing or inward? Is our primary job to preach the Gospel or to live Christ? I think ... I hope ... when I ask it that way, you can readily see the answer is ... "Yes." And suddenly it becomes very complex. You see, "both" is the right answer, but we tend to lean toward one or the other. Interestingly, this becomes quite evident ... in the text on how the purpose of the church is equipping the saints ... internal. In that text, Paul writes, "And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (Eph 4:11-12). See it? Evangelists. There it is ... both evangelism and the equipping of the saints.
Put them together. We are clearly commanded to "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15). But ... more. We're commanded to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt 28:19-20). So it's not just "proclaim the gospel." It's "make disciples" and baptize and teach them. Oh ... there it is again ... equipping the saints. It is, then, two functions wholly interdependent and inextricably linked. Both are commanded and both are critical and both produce the other. Like the proverbial "chicken and the egg" question, what does it matter? You need both.
5 comments:
I've often questioned, should we be bringing non-believers to the Sunday worship service? And I find it funny that I ask because I've often heard sermons stating that we need to be evangelizing but fail to because we leave that to the church. And yet, as you point out, so often there is a Gospel presentation and altar call in the Sunday service. Not that those are bad, because you never know who is there, but it seems to me the purpose of Sunday is to build up the saints so that they are then able to go out and make disciples. Far too often we leave the making disciples part up to the church and not the flock. I was listening to someone argue for the Postmillennial view say that back in the 1600s, when they would have 6 hour sermons, the members would be able to stand up and correct the pastor if he'd gotten something wrong. Not only would that be out of decorum for us today, how many know our Bibles well enough to do that and not just accept what the pastor says?
This is a topic I dug into a while ago, and reached the same conclusion. Where the problem arises, in my opinion, is with worship services. It seems pretty clear that worship services are intended to be for believers and to equip believers. One of those things to be equipped for is evangelism. It seems as if too many churches want their worship services to do double duty.
The New Testament model is clear: The gathering of the saints was for the purpose of their edification--for equipping believers to function as disciple-makers, pastors/teachers, evangelists, etc., within the church and in the world. Those first-century meetings have morphed into western-style “worship services”--during which church leaders/staff attempt to similarly equip current attendees and also to attract visitors and new members (of course, unbelieving attendees at these services would not be able to join in any “worship” going on). Some churches have kept the original NT design and purpose in mind, while others have drifted far, far away from it--moving from “feeding the sheep” to “entertaining the goats.”
In any case, evangelism and discipleship will come full circle; as saints are equipped to be disciples and witnesses, they will be used by God to bring new people to Christ and into the church, where they too will be equipped to disciple and witness and bring new people, and so on and so on. So yes,
“the purpose of church” is both to equip believers and reach unbelievers as those believers go into the world--a perpetual cycle of reproduction and growth, “like the proverbial ‘chicken and the egg.’”
I agree that our services--the gathering of the saints--is for CHRISTIANS and not for unbelievers. It's for corporate worship and edification. IF and unbeliever attends he may hear teaching pointing to Christ but that should NOT be the focus of the gathering.
I was talking to an unbeliever that had attended a few services he'd been invited to and said that he felt uncomfortable because of the distance in feeling between him and the congregants during the singing.
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