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Biblical Church

The church is the living body of Jesus Christ, composed of God’s elect who have been regenerated (spiritually reborn) in Jesus Christ.  Believers are to celebrate the life of God, cultivate personal growth in Christ, disciple one another in the Spirit of Christ and communicate the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ to the unsaved.  The Church body consists of several parts and members with many gifts of the Spirit and various apportions of grace.  Men and women in the body are meant to form a “solidarity of fellowship,” not a loose collective of the independent hearted, for there is “one body and one Spirit.”  God can use either gender with equal effect to help bring the lost to Christ.  God’s intent for male headship in marriage and family is not to be overturned in application within the Church.  In our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, there is neither male nor female; we are all equal members in the “royal priesthood” of God’s new covenant.  However, God intends male headship to also apply in the collective organizational affairs of the church.   Elders, overseers and deacons “must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, able to mange his own family well and see that his children become believers and obey him with proper respect.  Their wives are to be women worthy of respect.”  The connotation of “authority” in its everyday non-biblical usage is not helpful in describing God’s design for authoritative (headship) relationships.  The secular association with the term is a position of arbitrary power; however, all functional authority in the church is exercised under the biblical precept: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave” and “whoever humbles himself” is the greatest in the Kingdom.  Executed properly, male headship in the church is never a threat to female members, but is a blessing.  Male headship is not a pretext to dictate, but a divine dictate to humbly serve.  The church is to be salt and light in the world, the witness of truth and life.  The decision to join a church is not a social decision; it is a spiritual decision with spiritual ramifications.  Church is a place of prayer, worship and fellowship, not a social club.  Getting the entire family out to a service in the congregational facility every Sunday may be part of attending a church; however, being conformed to the image of Christ seven days a week is part of belonging to the Church.

Mt 14:11, 18:4, 14, 20, 20:26-28, 23:12;  Jn 10:14-16, 17:20-23;  Ac 2:42-47, 9:31;  1Co 10:16-17, 12:12-13, 27;  2Co 3:2-3, 4:1-18;  Gal 3:26-29;  Eph 1:22-23, 2:19-22, 4:3-5;  Col 3:1-17;  1Ti 3:1-16;  Jas 4:7-12;  1Pe 1:1-2, 2:9-10;  Rev 1:6, 2:7, 11, 17, 26-29, 3:4-6, 11-13, 21-22, 5:10, 20:6.