A blog can serve many purposes, but at its core a blog is meant to provide information and knowledge on various topics for a target audience. In starting a blog at Twin Cities Bible Church, we want to focus the blog on what is really important: ministering to our local church body and giving glory to God. With those motives in place, the blog ministry purpose became crystal clear: to edify those in our local body and glorify the Lord Jesus by teaching His truth with clarity and passion.
Truth. Clarity. Passion. Our church is very blessed and well equipped with many gifted individuals who are able to teach God’s truth clearly and passionately. One intention of this blog ministry is to be another avenue for people to continue to exercise the teaching gifts God has given them. Not only do we have gifted teachers, but our body of believers are strong in the faith and are always willing and able to serve and minister to one another. The purpose of this ministry then is twofold: to allow gifted teachers to exercise their gifts for the edification and sanctification of all of us, and to build everyone up into the image of Christ. This blog ministry is another way our church can fulfill the great commission given to us by our Lord upon his ascension back to the right hand of the Father:
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
The mission of the Church on earth isn’t fellowship, or teaching, or praise and worship. These are all vital ministries of the Church that help us fulfill our mission, but they are not the mission of the church in and of themselves. If the purpose of the Church was fellowship, or teaching, or worship, why would God have us remain here on earth? It would be better to take us straight to heaven upon conversion to be with Him in His presence where we would have perfect fellowship, perfect knowledge, and perfect worship – continuously.
The true mission of the Church is to glorify God by declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to foster spiritual growth through teaching God’s Word so that every member matures and is transformed into the image of Christ. God is glorified when sinners are saved. And God is glorified when redeemed Christians grow in their spiritual maturity and become more and more like Christ. The church is empowered by God to provide people with a greater understanding of who God is and what a proper relationship with Him really looks like. Fellowship, teaching, and worship all have a role in helping the church glorify God by helping each individual believer grow spiritually in order to serve and minister to one another in love.
The reason the Great Commission is the mission of the Church is because it is a continuation of Christ’s mission on earth. Now the work of redemption was Christ’s and His alone, and the Church cannot redeem sinful men. When Jesus declared “it is finished” (John 19:30), He alone provided full atonement for the wrath of God upon his chosen people. The mission of the church is not atonement. Atonement has been paid by Christ alone – we do not dispute that – but now it must be made known what has been done for God’s people throughout the remainder of time. That mission is given to Christ’s church.
The Great Commission isn’t the end of Matthew’s gospel, it’s the climax. God’s glory is manifest in His loving desire to redeem fallen humanity. Because God loved the lost world and desired to win it to Himself for His glory, Christ was sent into the world. Christ walked among men and made disciples. He declared the truth about God to them. He taught them about who God is and how to have a proper relationship with Him. He fellowshipped with them, and he showed them how to properly worship God while on earth. Now it’s our turn. Christ sends us out to continue this same mission:
“13But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.’” (John 17:13-19; emphasis added).
As the Father sent the Son into the world, so now the Son sends us out on the same mission to call the lost back to God and to teach them God’s truth. But we’re not alone in this mission. Our risen Lord is with us and empowering us. Christ is the one who is building His church, Christ is the one who enables us to proclaim and teach His truth, and Christ is the one who grows His church. On more than one occasion, the Apostle Paul uses the image of the human body to illustrate church growth. Corporate maturity is achieved through the spiritual development and sanctification of each individual member working together to build one another up. Christ is the head and supplies all vital information to all members of the body in order to ensure every part receives exactly what it needs to function properly. For this reason, we decided to use Ephesians 4:12 as the verse to represent the purpose of our blog ministry, which is “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”
In the coming weeks, we will look more in depth into these great truths by examining Ephesians 4:7-12.