The Biblical Role of the Church in Today’s World

What is the Biblical role of the church in today’s world? As I look around, I find that many must not know. It is apparent there are some fallacies floating about or maybe just a failure by leadership to understand clearly. The book of Acts is a great place to go to learn what the early church was doing and why.

First, we recognize that the church was the place from which evangelists and missionaries were sent out from in obedience to Christ’s command in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Second, we recognize the church to be a place of fellowship, meeting one another’s needs, communion and worship for the believers. Acts 2:42-47 tells us: “They devoted themselves…to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the church is to be a place where believers receive proper teaching and instruction in the teachings and doctrines of the Word. Acts 2:42 says: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching….”

To understand this even better, we must go over to Ephesians 4:11-16 where the responsibilities of the pastor and leaders of the church are taught. Paul writes: “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

What he is saying is this: It is the job of the pastor and teachers of the local church to prepare the believers for their own works of service by maturing them in the teachings and doctrines of the Word. This instruction should be deep enough that it helps the believers to recognize false teachings and teachers when they come and to be able to stand against these by the knowledge and understanding of the Word planted within them. Certainly, study of the Word individually is good, but the deep teachings come from proven pastors and teachers.

A comment before I close: Sadly, too many teachers and pastors have such a shallow understanding of the Word themselves, they are unable to feed their flock the deep teachings of the Word. Americans are being blown about by every wind of false teaching and doctrine from around the globe today. Because of this, many in the church are abandoning the truth of the Word to follow these falsehoods because the church has failed to ground them properly in the Word.

This exhortation from Paul to young Timothy is so needed in America’s pulpits today: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). I want to encourage church leaders to be constant students of the Word. You can never know too much.