The Church (What is its Purpose?)

1) Worship

Psalm 100 LSB

A Psalm of Thanksgiving. 1 Make a loud shout to Yahweh, all the earth. 2 Serve Yahweh with gladness; Come before Him with joyful songs. 3 Know that Yahweh, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. 5 For Yahweh is good; His lovingkindness endures forever And His faithfulness, generation unto generation.

Colossians 3:16 LSB

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God.

Ephesians 5:16–19 LSB

16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 On account of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

2) Discipleship

Colossians 1:28 LSB

28 Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

Ephesians 4:12–13 LSB

12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ,

3) Evangelism

Matthew 28:19 LSB

19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

2 Corinthians 5:20 LSB

20 So then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as God is pleading through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Note on the Seeker Sensitive Movement:

Willow Creek Bill Hybels

1990s trend of focusing church on those outside of the church

Asking questions like:

What would get more people to our church?

How can we make people feel more comfortable?

How can we change the teaching, worship, welcome, and style to be more welcoming to people outside of the church

This trend is strong today

Churches who heavily focus on visitors

Churches who take suggestions on how to do worship and teaching

Churches who try hard to get people to the church by making it fit to the seeker

Generally shallow teaching (6 ways to be more joyful in marriage)

Generally shallow worship (although normally very good musically)

Extreme Examples: Smoke, dance party, lights, taking tips from mainstream performance with drummers falling from the sky,

Analysis

What are some good things about the seeker sensitive movement?

Friendliness towards visitors

A desire to not be boring

A desire to grow the church

Major Concerns

Worship

Successful preaching is not defined by the listeners

Do you think it praises God more to have a church of 50 who takes worship seriously, or a church of 1000 who takes worship as a joke

Discipleship

When you make sermons about the newcomer, what about the people who are consistent members that need help in marriage, or raising kids, or telling people about the Gospel.

Churches like this will have core members that are wildly immature because there is no focus on preaching to confront them

Evangelism

Does getting people to your church make them saved?

Is it helpful if you double a church, but no one gets saved?

If you are trying to aggressively grow a church, it is rare that the honest message of Jesus is preached.

Personal Concerns for your own church attendance

Worship

Is church primarily a means of praising the Lord for what He has done?

In teaching, singing, in encouraging fellow believers, in consistency, in service

Discipleship

Are you seeking to learn and be called out through teaching and through other Christians?

Evangelism

Are you actively seeking to spread the Gospel with unbelievers that you know?

Do you engage with people on the topic of religion?

Do you pray that God make save certain people in your life?

I hope today you understand more about what a church should care about? And i hope that if you are a Christian today, as part of the church, you care about these things too.