The Upward Calling (4)

“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16.18

The centerpiece of history
It might surprise some Christians to know that the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of history.

How many of us who call ourselves followers of Christ even think of our church as the centerpiece of our own lives?

For many Christians, the most important time of their lives is organized around something other than the church. Work, or their family, friends, or avocations take up more of their time and demand more of their best energy and attention than they ever invest in their local church. It’s not that they don’t love their church. It’s just that the church doesn’t occupy the same place in their lives as it does in the mind of Jesus.

Jesus declared that, at the top of His agenda in these days before He comes again, is the work of building His Church, so that, through His Church His Kingdom can come on earth as it is in heaven. The local church is both a sign and outpost of the Kingdom, making its existence, health, and growth of primary importance in the Lord’s agenda. “I will build My church,” the Lord declared, and we can assume that, exalted in glory at the Father’s right hand, this is the most important project on His list of things to do.

So if the church is not that important to us, how can we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ?

Members of His Body
Every follower of Jesus Christ is a member of the Church, which is the Body of the Lord (1 Cor. 12). Each of us has something to contribute to the health and growth of the Body of Christ, the local congregation where we join with other believers to worship and serve the Lord, and the Church of our Lord throughout the world.

But if we only look at our church as a resource for meeting our own spiritual needs, we’re not likely to contribute much to the wellbeing of others. Instead, we’ll always be looking to church leaders and programs to bring some benefit to us. And, since we tend to be rather easily satisfied when it comes to spiritual matters, we’ll find some niche in our church that “meets our needs” and that will be about the extent of our involvement.

But in a healthy, growing body, the individual members don’t simply leech off the rest of the body. They have a contribution to make, be it ever so small, to the health and growth of the whole. Every true follower of Jesus will want to find his or her place on the Lord’s church-building agenda, and to take up whatever work that place may require for helping to make their local congregation a healthy, growing church.

Jesus is building His Church through the individual contributions of each member of His Body. We
will be on the Lord’s agenda when building His church, using the gifts and resources God has provided for us, is at the top of our agenda as well.

Two commitments
Becoming a contributing member to the health and growth of your local church involves two primary commitments. First, you must make yourself available for the equipping you will need to become a contributing member of the Lord’s work in building His Church (Eph. 4.11, 12).

None of us comes to faith in Jesus fully equipped to take our place in His agenda. We need to learn and grow, and to develop the gifts and abilities which the Lord provides each of us uniquely. We have to learn new disciplines, discover the best ways of managing our time and resources, and find places of service appropriate to the skills and inclinations the Lord has built into us.

We need, in other words, to be always growing as a member of the Body of Christ, always learning and seeking to improve our skills for contributing to the building of Christ’s church.

And then, second, we need to get to work doing those ministries of neighbor-love that channel the grace of the Lord to others at the point of their need. Each of us has a Personal Mission Field to which the Lord has appointed us, where we are to shine like light, work like salt, and influence like leaven to bring the Good News of Jesus to the people around us. Working this Personal Mission Field is a full-time calling from the Lord. The better we work it, the more we touch others with the grace of the Lord, and the more His Body is built up in the unity and maturity He intends (Eph. 4.11-16).

We are true followers of our Lord Jesus if we take seriously His calling to be active, contributing members to the health and growth of His Body. This means our local church has to become more important to us, and we need to be equipped for the unique works of ministry we can do which help to bring the Lord’s agenda to completion.

To follow Jesus is to build His Church. Let’s get on the Lord’s agenda together, shall we?

For reflection
1.  Meditate on Ephesians 4.11-16. How does Jesus build His Church today?

2.  What do we mean by saying that building the Church is the Lord’s agenda? How can we know when we’re on that agenda with the Lord?

3.  What should we be looking to in order to determine whether our church is being built the way the Lord intends?

Next steps – Transformation: At present, how would you describe your contribution to building up your local church? What would you like your contribution to be? Talk with a pastor or church leader about these questions.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, The Upward Calling, is Part 1 of a 5-part series on Following Jesus.Each week’s study is available in a free PDF which you can download by clicking here. Watch the video on our Mission Partners Outreach for more information about how you can begin to follow Jesus in your Personal Mission Field (click here).

Want to learn more about your Christian worldview? Our free online course, One in Twelve, is available any time, and at no charge. Click here to learn more about this exciting introduction to Christian worldview, presented by T. M. Moore.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.