What Is The Church That Works?
“The Church that Works” is an ambitious title, but it captures a vital two-fold emphasis. First, it means a local body of Christian believers effectively representing their Lord and pursuing His commission to reach their world. Second, that church necessarily will be one in which the people, not just the clergy, do the work of ministry.
The word “church” today carries a variety of meanings. It can refer to a building used for public worship, to the congregation that assembles, to the public worship that takes place, to the activities or functions carried out by or in behalf of the congregation, or to a group of churches joined in doctrine and organization as a religious denomination.
Usage has mutated since the First Century when the Greek word translated “church” throughout the New Testament, ekklesia, referred to an assembly or congregation. Specifically, it meant a meeting or body of people called out by a herald representing some civil authority. The inspired writers adapted and applied it to the Christian congregation.
In Acts, ekklesia is the most frequent designation for the community of disciples. It denotes the body of Christians in a specific city or region such as Jerusalem (Acts 5:11; 8:1, Antioch (Acts 11:26), and Caesarea (Acts 18:22). It also applies to the believers in all the churches (Acts 9:31).
For the purposes of this book, we use the word “church” to mean a local assembly of believers and the capitalized “Church” to refer to all those of all the world and of all times whom Christ has redeemed.
The New Testament makes clear that the Church Universal, the spiritual family of God including all followers of Christ, is visible and expressed in local bodies of believers—local churches who are functioning in cooperative fellowship. Everything the Universal Church represents, the local church embodies at a specific address.
Every local church should be healthy. It should faithfully present and practice the teachings of the Bible as God’s Word. It should devote its fullest efforts and resources to carrying the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone everywhere. It should worship God in spirit and in truth, and the healthy local church must be building believers who live, love, and serve in the likeness of Christ.
A healthy church is marked by unity, cooperation, and mutual submission of its members for the sake of Christ and His mission. The pastor leads and gives priority to preparing and releasing all the believers to do the work of ministry according to their gifts. In every sense, the healthy church is a church that works.
The church that works keeps its own children, reaches its neighbors, blesses its community, and makes God known to its generation, and the next, around the world. More than a building and more than just a congregation of worshipers, the church is a body of Christian workers.
When the church works, the world wins. When the church works, people come to Christ. When the church works, lives are changed and families are transformed.
The New Testament church is a church that works. The people, not just the pastor, pray. The members, not just the ministerial staff, visit and serve the needy. Each believer, not just the paid worker or ministry leader, gives a witness for Christ in attitude and action.
Churches in the New Testament worked. They filled the city of Jerusalem with the teachings of Jesus Christ, then “turned the world upside down”¹⁰ with dynamic demonstration of their faith.
The church worked then because each person who came to faith in Christ took responsibility for passing it along. The church worked because leaders recognized their divine assignment to equip the people to serve God and others.
The church worked because the leaders were free to pursue their tasks with the backing of the members. Finally, the church worked because pastors and members all relied on the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.
When the people falter in ministry, the church fails in its mission. The church cannot work if the people who are called to lead are forced to follow or if those called to follow are trying to lead.
Christ paid for the Church with His own blood when He died on the Cross. He poured out His Spirit on the Church to energize us for service. He placed offices, and He calls officers, in His Church to channel His authority and keep us on target.
For the church to work, we must do it God’s way. When we move away from His pattern and purpose, for whatever reason, we forfeit His power and provision. When we do the work for which we were called and authority flows the way God designed, the church will work.