What is a church for? Winning the lost
A three-letter word can make all of the difference in the world. In this case, I am thinking of the word “for.”
The question “What is a church?” is a different question altogether than the question “What is a church for?”
It would be much the same as the questions “What is a wrench?” and “What is a wrench for?”
The identity of a created thing and the purpose of a created thing are two different things.
I am currently musing on this subject as a result of a dispute with a happy ending. The dispute in question centered on whether or not sinners should be getting saved in church. I took, and still take, the position that they should.
My counterpart was and is of the rather vehement position that they should not. Mind you, he is an incredibly good man, but he is a good man with a bad position.
The philosophy he and others like him espouse is that a church is “strictly for believers.” When questioned as to how the lost then manage to become believers, you will be told by people of that persuasion that the church goes out into the world and wins them in their homes and then brings them into the church afterward.
If the identity of a created thing and the purpose of a created thing were the same thing, they would be correct. A church is an “ekklesia,” meaning a called-out assembly. A church is therefore a body of believers; a church is people who used to be lost and are now saved.
So if the purpose of the church is to be what it is, then no sinners would ever get saved in church.
But if the purpose of a wrench was to be a wrench, no nuts would ever be taken off of bolts either. It would just sit there on the workbench all shiny and new. It would never get any grease on it. It would never get any nicks or scratches. It would just sit there being a wrench.
In Mark Chapter 2, all of the members of the church that Jesus was forming (meaning at that point him and all of the disciples) were having a service. It was being held in a home on that occasion, since there were no such things as church buildings just yet. But the service does not seem to have looked much different than what we hope for in a service today. There was preaching going on, and there was a huge crowd gathered to hear it.
Some people realized that Jesus was there, and they brought a friend to Jesus. That friend got healed that day, but he also got something even better. In Verse 5, he got his sins forgiven. That sinner got saved in a church service.
It is wonderful when we can go out into the community and win the lost. But it is no less wonderful when we can invite a sinner to visit and have them get saved at the church altar. We actively practice both. Either way, a sinner has been delivered from destruction. And the practical truth is that sinners are often easier to win using the latter methodology than they are using the former.
There is something powerful about a church inviting all week, praying for the lost all week and then getting them under the convicting sound of the gospel message.
Now about that happy ending. After my little dispute, I went to church the next night (a Wednesday) and preached on the subject. I challenged the church to respond with a huge effort to bring the lost in to hear a salvation message, and they did.
There was a very large crowd Sunday morning, and a lady we have been praying for came to the altar and received Christ as her Savior. She was back Sunday night to learn and grow as I preached doctrine to the church.
Here is what I have found to almost always be true: Churches that strictly teach that the one and only proper way to win souls is to win them outside of the walls of the church normally do not do so at all. It becomes a beautiful wax theory to them that melts away under the hot light of actual results. In an effort to “keep the church pure” (which, by the way, I am thoroughly in favor of), they simply do not win anyone and die a slow death with the loss of each aged “saint.”
The definition of a church tells us what a church is. But the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) tells us what a church is for. The Great Commission is one mission in three parts: win the lost, baptize them, instruct them in the doctrines of the faith.
Two-thirds of it is the “winning and baptizing” part. Only one-third is the “instructing” part.
I do not know of any test, anywhere, in which 33 percent is not a failing grade.
Be about the Master’s business. It starts with winning the lost.
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books available on Amazon and at www.wordofhismouth.com. He can be contacted by email at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.