Jesus stated his mission in Luke 19:10, "I have come to seek and to save those that are lost." The first thing we must be doing is bring the Spiritually Lost into a relationship with the Lord through Jesus Christ. There are many different ways and ideas how to do this and I will pretend to know all the answers but what I do know is we have to be about reaching the lost if we are going to be the church. That includes every single person in the church. The task of Evangelism was not given to a the church staff, the deacon, the pastor, etc. The privilege of evangelism, is given to every single "Follower of Jesus "! This is a must for a church and for Christians!
Another Scripture that reveals what the church (i.e. individual believers) should be doing is found in Matthew 28:18-20 when he says, "...Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you..." The second responsibility is to be disciples. If you are a Believer then you have a responsibility to grow in your relationship with the Lord. If you are not growing then you are dying!! God has called you to grow you to be a more dedicated follower of his! I understand that we all grow at different rates but at least there is growth! God doesn't save you to leave you like He found you. He loves you too much to do that but I also know that you have to willing to learn and grow as well.
The third Scripture I see is found in 2 Tim 2:2, "And 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." Who are you disciplining right now. Who are you meeting on a regular basis to help train and teach them in the "Ways of the Lord"? If the answer is nobody then you have another step to take in your growth for the Lord.
If you, the church (you as an individual), is lacking any of these then the church is really not being a church! It may be a meeting, it may be a place of fellowship, it may be a group that does community service projects, it may be place where you get together to eat a meal but with out all three of these aspects then it is not a church!! You see there is nothing wrong with any of these activities but to do them to the neglect of the others moves the church away from being a church and into being a "Community Service Group" and there are more than enough of those to go around.
Let me ask you, are you saved? If not then it doesn't matter if you go to church you are not the church. If you say you are saved, then let me ask you, "Are you Growing?" If you say, "Yes I'm Saved" then you will be growing Spiritually! It doesn't matter if you go to church if you are not growing as a disciple then you are not the church. Let also ask you, "Are you teaching others to follow the Lord through discipleship?" If you say, "Yes, I am Saved and you say Yes, I am growing, then you are required to be disciplining others in the Faith!" It doesn't matter if you go to church if you are not disciplining others then you are not the church!
The faith we have, the mission we follow, the growth we have, and the ways of the Lord we are teaching to others will cause us to be a part of a local church and it will also make us in the church. If we are lacking in any of these three then we are not following the Lord's COMMAND to "GO", "Make", and "Teach"! Let's "Be the Church" that God has called us to be!! I would love to have you thoughts and input on this subject. Please feel free to "Comment" here or "Share", "Like" or "Comment" on my Facebook Post. Thank you and God bless!!
In Christ,
Bro. W. Dee Daniel