by Kyle Ellison<\/p>\n
Recently, I came across a discussion where community members discussed the need for churches to expand their activities.<\/p>\n
More physical fitness facilities, more sports options for Christian families, more clothing drives, more dinners, more food drives, more bookstores, improved coffee facilities for first-time guests, and on the list went.<\/p>\n
It caused me to reconsider the exact purpose of the local church.<\/p>\n
To understand the focus and work of the local church, we must find ourselves searching for a “thus says The Lord” and “it is written.” In other words, what does the Bible tell us that the local church should be doing?<\/p>\n
Truthfully, if we take only what the scriptures reveal, our work for the local church will be limited.<\/p>\n
If we went beyond those five things you read, we would need to invent our own standard. The local church is not charged with goodwill care, providing for every activity, arranging secular education, funding secular education, filling our stomachs with food, or providing recreationally and socially.<\/p>\n
All of the things listed above are\u00a0good\u00a0<\/strong>works, but they are not works for the church to burden itself with; they are works that God expects individual Christians to engage in daily.\u00a0The church is to prepare Christians and to help strengthen their hands so they<\/strong>, as individuals, may undertake these good works.<\/p>\n The work of the church of Jesus Christ is spiritual, with a spiritual focus and goal. When we produce spiritual disciples of Christ, they can enter the world and be His light, hands, and feet!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Kyle Ellison Recently, I came across a discussion where community members discussed the need for churches to expand their activities. More physical fitness facilities, more sports options for Christian families, more clothing drives, more dinners, more food drives, more bookstores, improved coffee facilities for first-time guests, and on the list went. It caused me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[448],"class_list":["post-85696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46060,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sponsoring-church-arrangement\/","url_meta":{"origin":85696,"position":0},"title":"The Sponsoring Church Arrangement (Longhenry)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ethan R. Longhenry God wills for all people to be saved in Christ Jesus (I Timothy 2:4; II Peter 3:9); Christians must go out and proclaim the Word of the Gospel to their fellow human beings (Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 10:14-17). The local church, as the Body of Christ manifests\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82734,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-work-god-gave-the-local-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":85696,"position":1},"title":"The Work God Gave the Local Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Klein God is the Master designer. We need only look at the physical universe to realize this. Psalm 19:1 tells us, \"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.\" The intricate and marvelous design of the creation shows the wisdom of God. \"O\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-it-take-to-start-a-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":85696,"position":2},"title":"What does it take to start a congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings, Hope this email finds you well. I have some questions about the organization and definition of a local church. My first question is: What are the necessary requirements for a group of Christians to form or constitute a local church in the biblical sense? I understand that an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69384,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-liberal-and-conservative-churches-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":85696,"position":3},"title":"Why \u201cLiberal\u201d and \u201cConservative\u201d Churches of Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert Harkrider During the past two decades, many have asked this question. Some sincere brethren who have been caught up in one stream or the other never fully understood, and many who were too young before have now grown to adulthood wondering why. It is, therefore, a good question\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25239,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-a-person-formally-place-membership-with-a-local-church-before-they-participate-in-the-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":85696,"position":4},"title":"Must a person formally place membership with a local church before they participate in the work?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What are your thoughts regarding \"placing membership\" with a local congregation?\u00a0 I understand the biblical authority for someone working under the oversight of the elders of a congregation.\u00a0 If someone has been attending a congregation regularly for a period of time, can it be assumed they wish to work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63000,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/understanding-the-difference-local-and-universal-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":85696,"position":5},"title":"Understanding the Difference: Local and Universal Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 30, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill Robinson I have a lot of friends that I dearly love and count them as brothers who are going to disagree with this article. Nonetheless, there are others that I dearly love and also count as brothers, for whom I feel compelled to write this. We are fast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}