When compared to Ephesians 4:12 I’m afraid that far too many Christians today view their faith as a spectator sport, where only a few play and the rest watch. Someone once described professional football as a handful of people playing a game where they are in desperate need of rest while thousands who are in desperate need of exercise watch. I’m afraid that this is what the Church has become but that is not how it was designed, as it is every believer is called to be in the game. And what is the purpose of the Church? Paul lists two things:
1. “The work of ministry”: GOING OUT I suppose these two things can best be understood by the two different words used to describe them. First, the equipping is “unto” the WORK of service. Work is something that we do outside as compared to the edifying of the body. The simple truth is that the Church (you and I) are to go out into the world and serve. We are to take our lives which have defeated those things that once defeated us and are now experiencing more life than we ever knew was possible and serve the people of the world with what He has done in our lives. There is a lot of confusion in the Church today about this as many think that the primary purpose of the Church is to get the world to come to Church. But look at Jesus’ own words in Matt. 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations”. Jesus told His followers to go and make and not the world to come and sit. Now don’t get me wrong if the world wants to come to church that’s great but our job clearly is to go to the world!
2. “The edifying of the body of Christ”: GROWING UP The word here in Greek means to “build up” and so you are to be into spiritual “bodybuilding”! Now it is not just the pastor’s responsibility to do this it is all our responsibility to see that we all grow up, in fact, it takes the whole church to do the work of the church.
We see that the purpose of the Church is equipping and that the equipping is for going out and growing up. The early Church knew its purpose, its purpose was not a building, nor the budget, but to take the continual transformation of the work of Jesus Christ in their lives to the world.