The Church

The Church

Cornwall

September 25, 2005

In our first week together, as Grace Community Church, I spoke about who we are and what we want to be here as GCC. Then we focused on how God works with you personally, as we considered Zacchaeus and Jesus’ calling him by name. Last week, we looked at how Jesus is still very active in your world. Today, we need to consider the church and what it is and how we are connected, and the life we are able to have here at GCC.

Let’s look, today, ad 5 basic areas that define the church and how we inter-relate with each other.

1. The church- this church- is a creation of Christ. He builds His church- Matt.16.18- using Spirit-directed pastors and leaders- Eph.4.11-13, and arranges the members in it according to His will- 1 Cor.12.18. Therefore, spiritual leaders and members should have deep respect for the pastor and every member God has placed in this church. Deep respect, in all directions, is what we need to strive for here, in the midst of our being human and having all that goes on between and among people.

2. The church is a living body of Christ with many members- 1 Cor.12.27. The church is not a building or an organization. It is a group of people built up into a living body. It’s a wonderful picture that Paul was led to use- to speak of the church as a body- it envisions such life and energy.

3. A church is uniquely related to Christ as Head of the body- Eph.1.22; 4.15-16. All matters in a church are to come under His lordship.

4. Members of a church are uniquely related to every other member of the church- Eph.4.11-16; 1 Cor.12. All members are interdependent on one another. All members need each other. Sometimes this is a tough one- to realize the matter of ‘need’, but it’s there in scripture and there in reality.

5. A church is on mission with Christ in our world carrying out the Father’s redemptive purpose- Matt.28.18-20; 2 Cor.5.17-20. “We are God’s fellow workers”- 1 Cor.3.9.

So, as we set out, we need to be oriented toward God, Jesus and the Spirit, and toward one another properly.