Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
In today's society here in America, I believe many think of church as that place you go for an hour or two on Sunday mornings. They refer to it as God's house as though it was the only place He can be found. They sing some songs, listen to a brief message or a very long one, and are typically sent out with a closing prayer. The obligation has been fulfilled.
I believe the brick and mortar church is to be a gathering place for believers. After all, the church is the body of believers not a building. Around the world many churches meet outdoors in fields and even under trees. They don't spend millions of dollars to construct a beautiful building They concentrate on their relationship with Christ and the commission He gave us. Being a believer is not about money, it's about obedience. It is about belief. It is about practicing His presence in our day-to-day lives.
Today's churches seem to be structured like a worldy business designed to gather people once a week and satisfy them with a good message. The message is seldom one to equip the saints but rather to instill fear instead of truth in who they are in Christ Jesus; who they are as believers in this age, the age of grace.
I believe the job of the pastor and his team is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. I applaud and encourage those that are doing just that. And yet many churches today work hard to bring people in through the doors which increases the number of people attending but does very little to equip them to go out and do the work Christ has laid out for us to do. If they were doing their job right, I believe a large part of the body would be leaving churches to start their own ministries on a regular basis. Once equipped there's no reason for them to stay within the four walls. New believers would be coming in and the mature going out to preach the good news to the world.
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