The Four Purposes Of Church

I was doing some reading about church this week. In the book “Introducing Christian Doctrine” it talked about the four main purposes or activities of the church. I found it interesting so I thought I would share it.

Purpose 1 Evangelism – Jesus last words to His followers was “Go and make disciples…” (Matthew 28.18-20). Therefore, if the church is to be faithful to Jesus’ last words and bring joy to His heart, it must be a church that reaches out to others.

Purpose 2 Edification – The second major purpose of the church should be edification. In Ephesians 4.11-12 the Apostle Paul talked about God giving gifts to the church to equip and build up the body of Christ. That is, he wants us to build up and encourage each other.

Purpose 3 Worship – Another activity of the church is worship. Where edification focuses of building each other up, worship focuses on the Lord. We see in the Book of Acts that early church met together on the first day of each week to worship the Lord.

Purpose 4 Social Concern – The final purpose of the church to show concern for those around them. The faithful church must take action where it sees need, hurts and it must work to right wrongs. Jesus often told parables about about helping others in need and how He expected us to do the same (Matthew 25.35-40, Luke 10.25-37).

The book summarized that these points and said for the church to be spiritually healthy it must carefully balance these four major functions.

It said in short the church members must meet together to build each other up and worship the Lord, and then move out into the world to reach people for Christ and help those in need.