Serving your local church is very important for you! 

Serving your local church means 3 things: 1) God’s doing, 2) equipping and building up and 3) being one healthy body.

Ephesians 4: 10-16 will be our primary reference as we understand what it means to serve the local church and why doing so matters.  

1. Serving the local Church is more about God’s doing 

The church, in itself, is God’s work. So, what happens in your local church isn’t truly because of what you just do. It is a result of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, which was made possible through Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.

Through Jesus Christ and what He did for us, God has been able again to fill all things.

In other words, our humanity has the shape of God, which only God can fill. This void comes with our existence. Many people have tried to fill it up with money, entertainment, and so forth. But, at the end of the day, they are where they started from: emptiness. 

What God has done through Jesus is what can thirst our spiritual hunger and thirst. In order to do that, God uses you and I so that we can help each other. That is the reason why there are prophets, apostles, evangelists, shepherds (pastors) and teachers among us. (verse 10)  

God made us so different and diverse so that we live with with one another. This diversity among us implies different destinies and callings. Each one of us was made to do some specific ministry on earth. And this is done through the local church.

This community of believers is very crucial because that is where we discover more of who we are in terms of our ministry and calling.

This is God’s doing in you, of which you will need to be aware.  

2. Serving the local church means to equip and build others up

Joining and belonging to a local church is not enough. But, what matters in God’s eyes is to realize that being a member of the local church means that you and I have two things to do: “equipping for the work of ministry” and “building up” the body of Christ. (Read verses 11 and 12). 

I, personally, think that, equipping for ministry and building people up, should take precedence over any other ministry in the local church. God’s calling for every member in the church is that we all do specific tasks through our local churches.

What we do should directly or indirectly bring us back to the goal for equipping and building up the church. And, let it be the guiding principle for every single decision you make as a local church.

Perhaps, a question to ask ourselves before doing anything new could be: “Is what we want to do going to help equip our people for ministry and build them up as members of Christ’s body?”

Equipping people for the work of ministry and building them up as Christians should be at the core of what defines the business of the local church, no matter what denomination you belong to. 

3. Serving the local church means living as a part of one healthy body 

It is only when equipping for the work of ministry and building people up represents the primary business of the local church that the church will begin to function more as one healthy body. This is the ultimate goal.

Here are 2 characteristics of one healthy local church:

1. the whole body is joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped and
2. each member (or part) of the body is working properly. (verse 16)

Being joined and held together means sharing the same mission:

1. to equip for ministry and
2.  to build people up. 

As a result of the above, the body (the church) builds itself up in love.

A healthy church is the one that aims at helping people attain spiritual maturity. In verse 13, this means “unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.”

When people are spiritually mature, here’s what happens:

1. they cannot be tossed to and fro by the waves or carried about by every human doctrine (verse 14).
2. They will know what values they stand by and will never let any human deception change that.
3. They are the ones who influence culture and not the other around. 

God has put you in your actual community of believers for the purpose of equipping someone else for the work of ministry and building them up as disciples of Jesus Christ. That is your mission. So, go and live it out with God’s help!