The 5 Essential Functions of the Church

Lesson 1

Introduction

I was eighteen years old when I decisively responded to Father's call to serve in vocational ministry. From the start, I think I had at least an elementary understanding of the functions of the church. My entire life up to that point had been lived in the context of a healthy church environment. If asked what the essential functions of the church might be, I would have said something like this: "Evangelize the lost, help them to become strong Christians, and send them out to evangelize others who are lost."

For an eighteen-year-old who had never served in congregational leadership, that's not a bad answer. On the basis of what I understood from Scripture and what I had experienced in a healthy church, I could identify three essential functions: evangelism, discipleship and deployment.

Fast-forward twenty-seven years. One of my ministerial mentors introduced me to Rick Warren's book entitled, The Purpose Driven Church. The book had already been on the market for over seven years, but I was just seeing it for the first time. Warren identified five purposes for the church: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism.

While Warren's five-purposes model has influenced my thinking, his list is not identical to my list of five essential functions. Other considerations helped to shape my five-essentials model.

At about the same time that I became familiar with Rick Warren's work, I was also introduced to Harold Eberle's The Complete Wineskin: Restructuring the Church for the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit and C. Peter Wagner's Apostles and Prophets: The Foundation of the Church.

I did not entirely agree with Eberle and Wagner, but they did open my eyes to the present-day relevance of the five-fold equipping gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11. I soon began to see a correlation between the equipping gifts and the essential functions of the church. I'll say more about that correlation later, but there is something more fundamental that I want to address first.

The Great Commandment

What are the essential functions of the church? To arrive at an answer, there is no need to sift through thousands of opinions and theories. All we need to do is identify "priority number one" and then discover how to function according to that priority. The Bible shows the way.

What is the top priority? What is most important?

A few religious leaders once came to Jesus and asked, "What is the most important thing?" Actually, that's my paraphrase of what they asked. In the literal reading of the text, they asked, "Which is the first commandment of all?" (Mark 12:28).

He answered, "The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:29-31).

These words are often referred to as "The Great Commandment."

Jesus said, "There is no other commandment greater than these." That's another way of saying, "There is nothing more important than this: 'Love God. Love people.'"

Love God. Love people. It's much more than a trendy slogan. It's God's priority. If the church is to ever do anything of eternal benefit, it must rise out of this two-fold priority. As love for God intensifies, love for people increases.

Love God

Yes, we have a commission to love people, but our "work" starts with getting caught up in a Divine Romance with God. Loving your neighbor without loving God is just humanitarianism.

Some say, "I just believe it is important how we treat our neighbor."

If you start there, you totally miss the ability to bring what people truly need. What they truly need is a supernatural touch of a loving God, and the only way that is going to happen is through a church—a bride—that is so passionately in love with the heavenly Bridegroom that we carry the essence of His loving nature into a world of hurting people who so desperately need Him.

What God really wants is for our hearts to be welded to His. If our hearts are not welded to His, then all we are going to bring to the world around us is our own goodness. Our goodness is not good enough. But if our hearts are welded to His, we are going to bring Him!

So, how are we to love God? Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). The implication is that love for God will be displayed in and through everything! We will love Him through our praying, our devotion, our worship, our communion with Him, our heeding of His voice, our obedience (John 14:23), our generosity and our love for others. Clearly we can see how this love affects each of us as individual believers, but you may also be catching hints of how this love impacts the functions of the corporate church.

Do you desire a revival of your love for God? If so, it begins with a renewed revelation of His love for you. The Bible says in 1 John 4:19 that "we love Him because He first loved us."

There is something about an encounter with God's love that ignites a flame that consumes our entire life: our hearts, our souls, our minds, our strength—everything about our life. When that happens, we are no longer satisfied with a mere disconnected admiration for God. We want a passion! We want depth in our relationship with Him!

My prayer for all of us is that we have a renewed encounter with His love. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

The functions of ministry are at their best when they are conceived and birthed in a context where the heart of God is supreme—a culture of God's love. Furthermore, every ministry should exist as an expression of our love to God and to the people that He loves.

Love People

When we are consumed with a passion for God, it impacts the way we relate to people. The Bible repeatedly suggests that love for people and love for God are connected. Immediately after saying, "You shall love the Lord your God..." (Mark 12:30), Jesus then said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31).

The Apostle John is famous for emphasizing how inseparable our love for God and our love for people are. Consider these statements from his writings:

  • John 13 (MEV). 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

  • John 15 (MEV). 12 This is My commandment: that you love one another, as I have loved you.

  • 1 John 3 (MEV). 16 By this we know the love of God: that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 Whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, but closes his heart of compassion from him, how can the love of God remain in him?

  • 1 John 4 (MEV). 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us…. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 We have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

There is so much in the Bible about how we are to love people—much more than we can possibly cover in this section. If you have not already done so, taking time to examine the "one another" teachings of Scripture would be a worthwhile study.

Implications for the Functions of the Church

Love for God and love for people stand as one single Great Commandment. From that commandment we can identify these implied functions:

  • Worship and Prayer. One of the most immediate and tangible means for expressing love toward God is through worship and prayer. Worship and prayer can be approached as separate functions, but as we will see later, they are most powerful when practiced together.

  • Evangelism. God so loved the world that He sent His Son to save the world.

  • Fellowship. Love and care for people involves an exchange of life with one another, which is the essence of fellowship.

The Great Commandment is the basis for the commission that Christ gave to His church, and the commission is the basis for a number of essential functions.

The Great Commission

Because of God's great love for people, He has commissioned us to do some some things to impact their lives. Because of our great love for God and our corresponding love for people, we are motivated to obey that commission. The Great Commandment is the basis for the Great Commission.

Let's consider the Great Commission and highlight the actions to which the church is called.

Matthew 28 (MEV). 18 Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

In light of the fact that new disciples are to observe "all things" that Christ commanded His original disciples (Matthew 28:20), several additional components suggested in Matthew 10:7 are relevant to our commission:

Matthew 10 (MEV). 7 As you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Implications for the Functions of the Church

From these passages we can identify implications for these functions:

  • Deployment. There comes a point when a maturing disciple must "go" (Matthew 10:7; 28:19) and enter into the work for which they have been prepared.

  • Evangelism. We are told to "preach" the Gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 10:7; Mark 16:15). We are told to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them...." (Matthew 28:19). The commission includes the embracing of all things that Christ had taught His original disciples (Matthew 28:20), including healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead and casting out demons (Matthew 10:8)—all of which are aspects of the evangelistic function.

  • Fellowship. The fellowship function includes pastoral care for one another within the faith community, and that care includes healing, deliverance and more (Matthew 10:7).

  • Discipleship. We are told to "make disciples" and to "teach" them (Matthew 28:19-20).

Transition: In this opening lesson, we have identified several church functions that might qualify as essential functions. When we introduce "The Five-fold Leadership Gifts" (Ephesians 4:11-13) into the mix, we will gain additional insight into how these functions work together.

© 2020 J. Randolph Turpin, Jr.