“Mobilizing the Church”

Monday, July 16, 2018

I hope you are enjoying and profiting spiritually from this series I have been writing on the subject of Strengthening the Local Church. A few have commented to me that they are benefitting from these articles and I truly pray that they are being helpful to you.

For the next few weeks, starting next Monday, Lord willing, I want to focus on the value of several groups in the church, people who can use their talents to help the church to grow spiritually and numerically.

There seems to be a feeling on the part of way too many Christians that, if they can’t ever serve as a preacher or elder or deacon, they really aren’t very important to the Lord and His work.

That is most unfortunate, because the Bible teaches that God loves every person, without partiality or favoritism (Acts 10:34-35; Romans 2:11; James 2:1-4). Every person, male or female, is important to the Lord and vital to accomplishing His will in the world.

Each of us is a unique individual, created in God’s image, with an immortal soul, to glorify Him while living on the earth. You know people I may never know. You love people I have never even met. You have, within your realm of influence, people who need to be saved and who may have been placed in your life by God, so that you can touch them with the gospel. And if you don’t do that, it may well be that no one else ever will either. And that is true for me also. And it is true for all of us who are Jesus followers.

Two passages make it abundantly clear that every one who is a disciple of Christ is important to His work.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31 compares the church to a physical body and teaches us that every part of the body is important to its proper functioning. No one should feel more important than anyone else, as we perform our work for Him. No one should feel inferior to others either. We all matter to God.

The context of this passage deals with the spiritual gifts that first century Christians were given before the New Testament was completed. Some thought themselves better than others because of their gift and some didn’t think they were as important as others because they got a different gift than someone else. But they were all to work together, just as all the various parts of our bodies work together. Although we do not have these same miraculous gifts today, we are all gifted by God with natural talents and abilities that should be used to help other people come closer to God and to glorify Him in every way we can. And Paul points out that, even with the miraculous aspects of their gifts, the greatest gift of all is to love others.

Romans 12 is an entire chapter of the New Testament that emphasizes how we are different, but that we should all use our abilities in a way that honors the Giver. You can do things I cannot and you are accountable to God to do what you can. And I need to do whatever I can.

Well, with that introduction, if the Lord doesn’t come back first, I plan to spend the next several weeks discussing what various groups of Christians can do that will strengthen the church where they worship.

The groups I plan to discuss, if I am able, will be:

• Single Christians
• Older Christians
• Women
• Teens/Young people

I hope you will benefit from this short series within the larger series of Strengthening the Local Church. May the Lord richly bless you as you seek to do His will.

--Roger Hillis

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