Purpose of Church

Everything in life has a purpose and without purpose life does not exist.   If this is so what is the purpose of church.   The immediate response is “to worship God” but is that truly the reason church exists or is that like saying we exist to breathe rather than breathe to exist.   In like manner we can not help but breathe, we cannot help but worship and the only question is what or who do we worship.   The intensity of that worship and do we “worship” singularly or as a group.   Do we get together to Worship or worship alone.  However we do it we cannot but worship    Which therefore brings us back to the question what is the purpose of church?

To find an answer to that question we need to go back to the scriptures and look at what the founder of the Church had to say as to why he did it and in particular why did Jesus come.    The answer to that was very short and succinct.    He said in John 10v10 “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.   A very good and succinct sound bite but what does it mean.   How can we have life and more abundantly that we have ever had before.    The whole of his ministry and teachings expanded on it  and cannot be better summed up than when in Luke 4 v18 he read from Isaiah 61:-

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed”.

Is this not the purpose of the church:-

·        To preach good news to the poor  and the good news  -  that life does not have to be like this and something can be done about it (and help them do it)

·        Bring freedom for the prisoners – whether literally in jail or psychologically

·        Recovery of sight to the blind – physically or figuratively

·        Release the oppressed – by injustice,  hunger, poverty

Isaiah 61 goes on

·        proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and

·        the day of vengeance of our God,

·        to comfort all who mourn,

·        and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. (NIV)

Which I presume Jesus also read out that day and was included when he said "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."   For in the day of judgment when the sheep will be separated from the goats (Matthew 25 v 31-45),  what distinguished the sheep from the goats,  were not the physically (sheep are different a animal – one was Christian the other not) or one went to church and the other didn’t,  but

 I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

I was a stranger and you did not invite me in,

I needed clothes and you did not clothe me,

I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

There was no mention in this list which condemned them to eternal punishment of not worshipping God, going to church,  reading the scriptures,  or praying even.

If we open up the scriptures and read all that Jesus said,  the parables he taught they were all about doing,  of one way or another demonstrating what he meant when in Luke 4 v18 he said  “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me……….”   In the story of the Good Samaritan for instance,   the point of the story was stopping and helping the person in distress and who was (implied) condemned.  the priest rushing to worship in the temple and the lawyer needing to get back to studying the scriptures. 

And last but not least  “the great commission”  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, ………teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.(Matt 28:19-20).   What was we to teach them but to obey everything Jesus had commanded us to do.    Surely this is the purpose of church  to make disciples of people who will do what he has commanded us to do…..  feed the hungry,  show hospitality to the stranger, clothe the naked, visit those who are sick or in prison,  comfort those who mourn and proclaim the good news that life can be much better than this.

What therefore is the purpose of church 

For some considerable time the church as been retreating into the ghetto of church and creating “Worship Centres” rather than Christian Centres and the world is seeing that we are more and more irrelevant to their needs or life.   They are not interested in our worship,  they have found other things to worship,  things that are more relevant to their needs is it not time the church refocused on the purpose they came into being and the purpose Jesus came.   Jesus came not to die but to give us life and called us not to build big worship centres but to also die if necessary in the process of bringing life more abundantly to all who will listen and become his disciples who will obey all He commanded us to do.   How many disciples have we made,   how many are going into prisons and helping them to be free of their chains.   How many are bringing comfort to the sick,  the grieving.    How many are feeding the hungry,  clothing those who have none,  helping the widows, the families of those in prisons,  those who have no work.    Freeing those who are oppressed by debt, poverty, violence and injustice.   How many children,  wives, vulnerable are being released from violent, abusive husbands,  partners, carers.    How many disciples are proclaiming the good news that life does not have to be like this and helping the alcoholic, the drug addict to be free from their prisons.     How many people in church are Christians following their master and doing as He commanded or just there to worship.    The ironic part of it is that we proclaim we worship a Servant King and say we want to be like Him but do not see that to be like Him we too have to become servants.   Instead we seem to preach that the more intensive we worship the more the King will serve us by making everything alright

Can we turn this around,  can the church re-capture it’s early days.   I believe that if we did and each church or fellowship re-looked at the purpose of their existence not only would it be once again be seem as relevant but would again start to grow.

CHURCH MANIFESTO

The role and purpose of the church is to give life to the people more abundantly than they have ever known and therefore does everything in it’s power to overcome everything that would stop that from happening

What is stopping people from having Life?  What is spoiling life?  Even if people think life is good now what is stopping it being more abundant than it was before?

Family breakdown; debt;  lack of job;  lack of money;  lack of friends;   low self esteem;

The purpose of the Church is to be Jesus on earth.   To serve the community.   Help people from the gutter.   Help people to a better life.   I want to see people seeing that their needs can be met by the church.  

People needs:-    (Maslow hierarchy of need)

Basic need  -  food and water

Safety – protection from danger  - a safe place.   .

Social -  sense of belonging, acceptance, friendship and love

Self Esteem – independence, confidence, achievement, status, recognition and respect

Self actuation -  realising one’s potential.

No-one can reach their full potential without knowing Jesus; i.e being a friend of Jesus.

A Christian Centre or church should be meeting the needs of all the people in the area.

A place where they can talk about the things that are troubling them without feeling judged or condemned and have the help and support needed.

e.g. the distraught parent,  child afraid to go home (abuse),  chap up to his neck in debt and doesn’t know where to turn,  got no job,  got no friends.  Those with problems with alcohol or drugs, anger, violence or not knowing how to cope.    The list is inexhaustible and I could spend hours listing out all the ways the Church is somewhere or other meeting need.  My experience of the Salvation Army during my time as an auditor for them is that somewhere in the UK they are meeting every need we could possibly think of.

In my experience in any area you care to go to you would find the following needs and I would consider that is no area where which is an exception therefore I would want to see each church a Christian Centre in which the following needs are being met :-

Homelessness                                                 Food Bank

                                                                        Housing Advice

Elderly                                                            Luncheon  Club

Stressed Parents                                              Parent & Toddler Group

                                                                        Parenting Courses

People with money problems                         Debt Counselling

                                                                        Credit Unions

People with drug & alcohol dependency        Substance abuse help

People with marriage problems                       Relationship counselling

Lonely people                                                  CAMEO Club

                                                                         Visiting

Unemployed people                                         Job Club – CV writing – Internet access

Young people with nothing to do                 “  Community Service”

                                                                          Mentoring

People with benefit problems                           Help with form filling etc.

              

The list goes on and on to include everything and anything that stops people having life and life in abundant.    Christ can and does in His own mysterious and supernatural way all of these in what we would describe as miraculous way but until He does with every one we come into contact with we should be doing within our natural abilities, resources and miraculous ways for that is the purpose of church and every person who claims to follow Jesus

Edward Noble

27^th April 2008