If Everything was Perfect at Calvary Bible Church

October, 2005

by: Jack Hughes

• The Church and Church Issues

One of the most fundamental principles of life is “purpose.” Everyone needs to know the “WHY?” of their existence. Do you know why you exist? You should. How can you ever be what you are supposed to be if you don’t know what that is? It is Satan’s desire to have you go through life distracted by one activity to another so that you never stop to ask the critical question, “Why?” He wants you to be like a stick floating down stream, pushed to and fro by lust. And this is how many people live. They are headed down stream towards eternity but only have their mind on where they are now and how they can please themselves. Remember, one day you will wake up dead on earth and alive in heaven or hell. It is inescapable

What happens next? What happens next is that you begin to experience the eternal consequences of your life here on earth. Believe me, eternity is a lot longer than your life here on earth — infinitely longer. This is why you need to know God’s purpose for your life. You must come to grips with reality. Your capacity to glorify God for all eternity in heaven will be determined by how faithful you are to fulfill God’s purpose for you on earth.

One way to consider your purpose for existing is to start with the body of Christ. If you are a believer you belong to the body of Christ. Now what would the perfect church look like? How would you fit into a perfect church? It’s helpful to consider the ideal, compare the ideal with your life, and then consider how to get from where you are now to where you want to be in the future.

First let’s just remind ourselves of the grand purpose of everything. In I Cor. 10:31 Paul says, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” The primary reason God created the universe and all it contains is to get himself glory. You are part of God’s creation which means you were created to give God glory. How do you give glory to God? This brings us back to the perfect local church. There is the universal church comprised of all true believers everywhere, then there are local churches comprised of those who profess to be Christians. Calvary Bible Church is one of the many local churches in the world.

Let’s break the primary tasks of the local church down into subcategories and then consider what Calvary Bible Church might look like if it was perfect in these areas. Then we can compare and contrast the ideal perfect church with our lives, and finally decide what changes we might need to make in our lives.

Perfect Worship

Worship is the practice of offering praise, adoration, thanksgiving, and honor to God. And contrary to what you might think, the Bible teaches that everything we do is to be an act of worship. Paul says in Rom. 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” God wants you to offer your entire life up to him, sacrifice your entire life to His purpose for your life. This includes family, work, play, church activities, everything. Jesus also told the woman at the well in Jn. 4:24 that those who worship God “must worship God in spirit and truth.” What this means is that you must worship God from your own heart, soul, and spirit and you must worship God according to His revealed Word, the Bible. Being passionate and emotional is not enough. Conforming to a biblical truth with a cold, dead passion is not enough either. You must engage your heart and mind. Your mind must be receiving directions from the Word of God. So let’s ponder some of the ways we worship God and what perfect worship at Calvary Bible Church might look like in these areas.

Perfect worship in listening to God would have to be the foundation of every perfect church. The question is how do you listen to God? There is only one way — the Bible. We speak to God through prayer and God speaks to us through His Word. The Word of God comes to us in many ways. We can hear God through preaching and teaching in books, magazines, songs, on CD’s, tapes, on the internet, when talking about the Bible with others, by reading and studying the Bible ourselves, etc. After learning God’s Word, we can even hear God by reminding ourselves what God’s Word says.

In the perfect church everyone would be listening to God speak to them as much as they could. They would want to hear from God and would work to make sure they heard from God every day and whenever possible. Think about how this would affect Calvary Bible Church. Everyone would be constantly reminded about God’s promises, God’s plan for their life, His sovereignty, the future, Heaven, Christ, grace and on and on. This would cause everyone to have the Word of Christ dwell in them richly (Col. 3:16). God’s Word would be hidden in their hearts and it would keep them from sin (Psa. 119:11).

Being saturated in God’s Word would help everyone in the church have better discernment, increase their ability to help others, motivate everyone to share their faith, trust in the Lord, be better wives, husbands, parents, children, etc. If Calvary Bible Church was the perfect church, everyone would be marinated in the Word of God.

Perfect worship in praying to God would be another necessity in the perfect church. If Calvary Bible Church was a perfect church, prayer would be the daily delight of everyone. Everyone would have regular times of structured prayer with God and everyone would think about and pray to God all day, praising Him, thanking Him, confessing sin to Him, asking Him for things. There would be prayer meetings at various places throughout the week, everyone would be devoted to prayer in all things and constantly give themselves to prayer (Eph. 6:18; Phil. 4:6-7; I Thess. 5:17).

Perfect worship in giving to God would be another attribute of the perfect church. Every Christian would prayerfully consider how to give to the Lord. They would consider how much they could give to the General Fund, the Missions Fund, the Benevolent Fund, and the Building Fund. They would give sacrificially, regularly, according to how God had blessed them, with a cheerful heart, trusting God to provide for their every need. The church would have ample resources to do ministry, hire pastors, support missionaries, and purchase those things which would facilitate ministry. Calvary Bible Church would never lack for resources needed to do ministry (I Cor. 16:2; II Cor. 8:12-14; 9:6-14).

Perfect worship in singing to God would be another characteristic of a perfect church. Both Eph. 5:19-20 and Col. 3:16 tell us that the natural outflow of the Spirit filled and Word of God filled life is singing songs, hymns and spiritual songs. These would be songs which proclaim God’s Word, songs that not only lift the emotions but songs that feed the mind and teach and admonish us.

Calvary Bible Church would be full of joyful, thankful, singing Christians. Those with musical talents would want to use their gifts as unto the Lord, those who could sing would want to sing to the Lord. Corporate worship would be characterized by every person focusing and concentrating on God and praising and thanking Him for who He is and what He has done. Everyone would be swept away emotionally and moved intellectually by the truth of God’s Word as they praised and worshiped God.

As mentioned earlier, everything we do is to be an act of worship so everything we might do could easily be placed under this category. But consider the kinds of worship mentioned above, listening to God, praying to God, giving to God, and singing to God. How are you doing in these areas? When you spend time with the Lord this week talk to Him about these areas. If there are changes you need to make in your life, start making them. Every month or so, evaluate how you are doing in your worship, set goals, make plans, change priorities, strive to be a perfect worshiper.

Equipping

Another primary task of the church is equipping the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-12). This includes everything already mentioned above and is a subcategory of what must happen if other ministries are to take place. People need to be trained starting with the theological foundation of a particular ministry. Even ministries such as the Sound Ministry has a theological foundation. It’s not that the Bible talks about mixer boards and amplifiers, but it does talk about corporate worship and what must happen during corporate worship. The Sound Ministry assists the church in corporate worship so that everyone can hear the songs, the worship leader, prayers, ministry needs, and the Word of God being preached.

But even after people know the theological foundation of their ministry there still needs to be hands on training. This is what discipleship is all about. Discipleship is not only about learning God’s Word, but learning how to apply God’s Word. Someone who knows how to do a ministry, equips and enables someone else who does not. The general pattern goes something like this: 1) You give someone the theological foundation for a ministry, 2) you explain how to do the ministry, 3) you give the one learning opportunities to serve with oversight, 4) you give the person learning feedback after they serve. Then you give more opportunities and feedback until the person is proficient at doing that particular ministry.

If everything was perfect at Calvary Bible Church, everyone would be training or being trained by others to do the work of the ministry. Those who knew how to do their ministry would seek to excel still more. Every ministry would have well trained people and those people would be multiplying themselves in others. If the church grew in numbers more training would take place and those trained would excel still more and train others (I Thess. 4:1, 10; II Tim. 2:2).

Look at your life. How are you doing in your equipping? Are you being equipped? Are you equipping others? If you are already equipped are you excelling still more? As you spend time with the Lord this week, talk to him about your role in the equipping ministries of Calvary Bible Church. If you are not being trained or training others, consider what God would have you to do to make changes.

Evangelizing

Finally there is evangelism. If Calvary Bible Church were a perfect local church, everyone would be involved in doing evangelism. Mothers and fathers would work at evangelizing their children. Everyone would work at evangelizing neighbors, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances (Mt. 28:19-20; Lk. 24:46-49; Acts 17:30-31; I Thess. 1:8). They would do this as an act of worship and would know how to do this because they would be equipped. God would most likely bless Calvary Bible Church with many new converts who would be eager to learn and excited about their faith. They would need to be trained, and equipped to do the work of the ministry and instructed in true worship.

So how are you doing in the area of evangelism? Are you sharing your faith and talking to others about the Lord? This week take some time to talk to God about your part in sharing the gospel with the lost. If you need training, get it. If you need boldness, ask for it. If you want to get good at sharing the Gospel, do it.

Jesus told the multitudes in Mt. 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The purpose of your life is to strive to be like your heavenly Father who is perfect. Press on towards the mark!