Why Add People to a Defective Church?

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

How many conferences, books, or videos on church growth ever say that the first priority is the Christ-like maturity of the present congregation? With few and precious exceptions, they simply do not exist. That is the tragedy of the post-evangelical church.

Ephesians chapter 4 tells us that Christ-like maturity is the ordained purpose of the office-bearers that Christ has gifted to His church:

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."

(Now this, "He ascended" - what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

We may sum up the Apostle Paul's words here, inspired by the Holy Spirit, thus: God's design for the local church is for gifted leaders to equip maturing saints who will minister as God leads them.

Once a year I have the privilege of speaking in a pastors' conference in South Carolina along with several other men, including Pastor Greg Barkman of Beacon Baptist Church in Burlington North Carolina. Greg is the founding pastor of that church and has been ministering there for over 50 years. Equipping maturing saints who will minister as God leads them has been the goal of his ministry, and of the other pastors on the staff. When I spoke in a Bible conference at Beacon Baptist several years ago, and had the opportunity over several days to meet and spend time with Pastor Barkman, his associate pastors, and other members of the congregation, I found a church consisting of people ministering spontaneously, led by the Spirit as they saw a need, not in organized programs dictated from the "top down".

We read of similar things in Iain Murray's classic biography of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Building churches according to the divine model we find in Ephesians 4 was his lifelong goal as well. In both his first congregation in Wales and his much longer ministry at Westminster Chapel in London, Murray records that the same pattern was evident. Members of the church would see an opportunity or a need, and began a wide range of very fruitful ministries that brought souls to Christ and built up believers in the truth.

Many of those activities were not even known to Lloyd-Jones. On one occasion he found out that some of the Westminster membership were distributing Gospel tracts to people entering and leaving a nearby Roman Catholic Church. The only way he discovered this was happening was because one of the priests came to protest. Lloyd-Jones first became aware of the evangelistic work of another member among young boys in the neighborhood when he began seeing rows of them sitting together near the front of the sanctuary with their mentor.

These are the kinds of spiritually fruitful activities that result when the leaders whom God has gifted to a church do their job of instilling Christ-likeness and spiritual maturity in the believers under their care, and both encourage and yield to the spontaneous workings of the Holy Spirit among them.

Ephesians 4:13 states the goal: "till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." It also states the duration of the work: until verses one through six are fulfilled. In other words, it is the lifetime work of a pastor, never ending until we reach the perfection of glory with Christ forever:

But what do we have today in most of the post evangelical church? Instead of catering to maturity, much of the church is catering to the childishness that Ephesians 4:14 declares we need to abolish: "that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting."

In so much of the post-evangelical church we have professing believers who act like babies. The Greek word translated "children" signifies an infant who cannot yet even speak, and who must be entertained and coddled in order to remain quiet and happy. Spiritually speaking it signifies professing believers who are motivated by emotion, not Biblical revelation, and have no sense of spiritual obligation.

A church that is filled with such people, as so many are today, is a defective church. And so we must ask the question: Why add people to a defective church?

Pastors and church leaders, you need to search your own hearts. God has called you to build the spiritual foundation that will result in Christ-likeness and spiritual maturity among those God has placed in your care. It is Christ-like, mature believers who will bring glory to God as a growing church. The goal of every pastor who is truly a believer and truly called to the ministry must be this - that the flock under his care

may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working [Greek energia, a word always used in the New Testament to indicate the exercise of supernatural power] by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

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Why Add People to a Defective Church?

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