Purpose of the Church

What is the purpose of the church? Sometimes we need to look back to the basics of our purpose to make sure we are still ontrack and that our forward looking decisions and belief and actions are faithful to our purpose.

There seems to be a lot of differing optinions on the purpose of the church these days. My seminary class is called "Church for the 21st Century". Unless we know the purpose of the church, we cannot begin to decide what it should look like in our time.

In my studies this week on this topic, I came across Ephesians 3:1-12

1For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
2Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
7I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. 8Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

It is verse 10 that struck me. The purpose of the church, according to Paul, is to show the wisdom of God to the "rulers and authoritys in the heavenly realms". Our ultimate job as a church is to show all the beings in the heavenly realms, angels and Satan and all his host that God is wise and as Piper puts it, His plan WORKS.

This is really saying that the primary point of the church is worship. Worship is treasureing, showing suprime value in Christ. This is what this means. Worship needs to permiate all that we do. When we preach, it is to show and treasure the words of God, because they "WORK" and they are worth knowing, loving, and savoring. When we desciple, it is ultimately to show others, again, that God's plan WORKS! Descipleship show's and demonastrates this in a very personal way. This is worship to God because it lifts Him up as supremely valuable in desciplers life. If they desciple simply to invest information in another, or if their primary purpose, the end of their desire, is to make someones life better, this is not worship to God. Worship of God is not a secondary or insidental part of what we do, it is THE CORE of what we do. It is THE PURPOSE.

The church needs to teach, equip, fellowship, evangelize, pray... all these things are extreemly important, but if they are not done out of worship and admiration to God, it is not just sad, but it is simply sin. It is not simply that worship is intertwined with these "other purposes", these purposes must BE worship in ESSENSE.

Lets show all the heavely beings how great our God is, and that His wisedom. Let us show how great God is in our church.

"The church is the cosmic showcase of God's mercy and if we fail to live as joyful beneficiaries of his mercy and fail to maintain the unity of the Spirit, we bring a cosmic reproach upon the wisdom of God." - Piper