The picture of a healthy Church is seen most clearly in the fourth
chapter of Paul's letter to the Church at Ephesus. Here Paul seems
to emphasize three vital parts of a Church that wishes to reach
it's God ordained purpose.
Ephesians 4:1–16 (NASB95)
1. Community - The entire local Church organized
so that individual members can be ministered to as well as reach
personal maturity.
1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in
a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance
for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one
Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all
who is over all and through all and in all.
2. Commission - Each member Identifying,
employing and maturing in their unique gifting to accomplish the
Great Commission locally and globally.
7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure
of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says, "When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men." 9
(Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that
He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who
descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens,
so that He might fill all things.)
3. Coaching - Equipping the members for
service and maturity through the biblical preaching of gifted men.
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some
as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 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 knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the
measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and
there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the
trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking
the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who
is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted
and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the
proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the
body for the building up of itself in love.
The goal of this passage as well as the goal of Capshaw is to present
each member of our Church family mature in Christ. This will take
many years and great patience but it is the commitment of the Church
leadership. As a result we believe God will be pleased to add to
our number over time those who are being saved.
