Doctrine #6: The Church Mission – 5 Pillars of a True Church

December 15, 2023 Cathy

God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself. [Ephesians 1:22-23]

GODS CHURCH

The church was established for very specific reasons, but sadly many churches are operating below standards. If you study chapters 1-3 in Revelation it is obvious where the church is heading, and it’s terrifying. Christ is supposed to be the head of the church not a committee, deacons, or even the pastor. Yes, the pastor is the leader of the church, but he should be leading based on the direction of the Holy Spirit.

The devil has infiltrated the minds of believers, churches, pastors, and teachers, resulting in a debilitating impact on the power of the Word for many. The powerful message that still is relevant today has been diluted to the point where the truth makes people uncomfortable (ruffles their pretty little feathers). Such things as: God wants everyone well, God wants you to be prosperous, it’s your unbelief that is blocking your blessing, etc.

Another disturbing trend that is prominent in most churches is the lack of accountability for one’s actions. Accountability isn’t even something talked about as it has been eroded, overshadowed by the implementation of “seeker-sensitive” methods. Sin and ungodly behavior, once condemned, are not only tolerated but shockingly celebrated.

This sneaky infiltration is making it dangerously normal to be morally incompetent, shaking the core truth that should be the foundation of our faith.

This emphasizes why it’s absolutely crucial for believers to stand firm on an unshakable foundation of biblical doctrine.

Benefits of Sound Doctrine

Sound doctrine provides a life of peace, prosperity, and purpose.
Sound doctrine gives you a solid foundation for everything in your life.
Sound doctrine prevents you from living in fear and anxiety.
Sound doctrine will give you a boldness in the Holy Spirit.
Sound doctrine will give you a firm foundation to speak from.
Sound doctrine will help prevent you from receiving the antichrist spirit.
Sound doctrine gives you discernment about heaven and hell.
Sound doctrine will allow you to live a holy life.
Sound doctrine will keep you from falling away from the faith.
Sound doctrine will prevent you from being deceived.
Sound doctrine will help you from going insane in this crazy world.
Sound doctrine will help you to STAND FIRM.

I encourage you to read and meditate on the following message in Hebrews. It is a call to believers to listen to God.

A CALL TO LISTEN TO GOD – Hebrews 12:14-29

Work at living in peace with everyone
Work at living a holy life (for those who are not holy will not see the Lord).
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God.
Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. (You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears).

You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. They staggered back under God’s command: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death. Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, I am terrified and trembling.

No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering.

You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven.
You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things.
You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect.
You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.
Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking

For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!

When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise:
Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.
This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.

Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.

MISSION OF THE CHURCH – 5 PILLARS of a TRUE CHURCH

So, what is the overall mission and purpose of the church? According to the sources that I have compiled all this information from there are 5

components that a church must have in order to be considered a church.

BUILDING UP BELIEVERS

The church is the body of Christ, we are to be the hands and feet doing the work on behalf of Jesus. One purpose of the church is to build a body of believers in the image Christ. This is done when there is sound doctrine within this church.

Within the body there should be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
As each of them are given certain gifts to minister and to equip the rest of the body.
The believers within this church body should constantly be growing in their faith, belief, and knowledge of the Word.
Church isn’t meant for you to come steal some food, feel warm and fuzzy, and leave.
The believers within this body should have a rock-solid foundation so they are not moved – they can STAND FIRM.
There is accountability within this church body, according to what believers are called to do; live a holy life.
Every single person within the body has a purpose, a role, and a responsibility.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. [Ephesians 4:11-16]

BE PEOPLE WHO LOVE

The body of believers within a church should demonstrate his love and compassion in the world. This love should be among each other and those within the community, and those that are not easy to love.

Some churches go to the far extreme where what they are doing, they believe is showing love when in fact – it isn’t love at all. A good example of this is embracing the LBGT community and accepting them into leadership roles and having them as role models. Now I’m not saying we don’t love them, but by not giving them the entire truth about the biblical stance of their lifestyle, this is NOT love, this is sending them straight to hell. We are to love according to the way Jesus loves.

Each of us has been given gifts to serve someone else. For example: My mom has a gift of writing tangible real cards. She has done this for many years, and she decorates them with little stickers, quotes, and things that are meaningful to the person that she is sending them to.

Sometimes we may feel that what we do doesn’t matter or it’s not a big deal. But I have saved the cards she has sent to me over the years, because she took the time to buy them, decorate them, put a heartfelt message in them, buy stamps, and actually go to the post office to send them. That is a lot of effort and time that I really appreciate.

Every day I ask the Lord to present to me an opportunity to show love to someone that needs it. People are all around us that are in pain, suffering, and alone; and sometimes just a smile or a small act of kindness can change someone’s day. We have a gift to share that others don’t have!

SIDE NOTE: Oh, here is my little Heaven’s travel brochure. As I was traveling around the states to different campgrounds, I kept asking the Lord what I could give to people that I was meeting from all over the world. Well, this idea didn’t come to me until a few weeks ago in a church service. Share with others 😊 This is what I’m going to use in 2024.

Like the scriptures say in 1 Peter:4 if you have the gift of speaking, speak for the Lord. If you have the gift of praying, then pray for others, if you have the gift of singing – sing. Etc. You get the picture! YOU have been given something special that no one else can give to others USE IT! DO IT.

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. [1 Corinthians 13:1-7]

CORPORATE WORSHIP

Corporate worship is a gathering of believers to honor God in a reverent manner. This should be a consistent sacred act. Worship is singing and praising the Lord together. There is a purpose of singing and praying in the spirit together. If you are attending a spirit-filled church this brings in the presence of the Holy Spirit, which allows the gifts of the spirit to flow. It is within the church and the body of Christ where we utilize our spiritual gifts.

I’m sad to say that you will be hard pressed to find a church that flows in the Holy Spirit. Nowadays most churches quench the holy spirit, there is fluffy doctrine, so therefore you are not seeing healing, wisdom, accountability, miracles, speaking in tongues, prophecy, interpretation of the tongues, and most devastating is there a great lack of discernment.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. [1 Corinthians 12:7-11]

FELLOWSHIP WITH OTHERS

One of the things that most churches do well is providing an environment for fellowship with other believers. From small groups, dinners, bible studies, fundraisers, lunches, and gatherings just for the purpose of connecting with others.

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. [Proverbs 27:17]

This is important as we need to be connected with LIKE MINDED believers. However, use wisdom to ensure that all the other pillars are also evident within the body of believers you are connected with.

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. [1 John 1:5-7]

EQUIPPING BELIEVERS

This is another area where a lot of churches are weak at or they don’t do it at all. Every single believer is called to live a life where we can bring others to the Lord. The purpose of the church is to disciple people to: Seek and save what is lost and to be an agency of God evangelizing the world.

And then he told them, Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. [Mark 16:15-16]

In the scriptures below, it tells us exactly how people should be discipled and equipped to have the ability to talk with people as we are out living our everyday lives. I’m afraid though, that most “believers” don’t even think about this because they are discipled to know OR they are so pre occupied with themselves, that they don’t even notice when someone needs to hear about Jesus.

There should be such a presence of the Holy Spirit within us that the Lord will place divine appointments in front of us daily, in order to fulfill the great commission!

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, I am not part of the body because I am not an eye, would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church:

first are apostles

second are prophets

third are teachers

then those who do miracles

those who have the gift of healing

those who can help others

those who have the gift of leadership

those who speak in unknown languages

Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.