A few weeks ago, I had a fruitful conversation with my best friend (my wife) regarding what makes a church and what Scriptures go along with that. Actually, this conversation included more than just by best friend in the world, but also some others. However, there are two passages from the New Testament that really stick in my mind that point towards a healthy church. Though, in my perspective, if you’re missing these two things within the church, it might say that those two things point towards a living church, or one that broken and on life support.
The passages are Acts 2:41-47 and Titus 2:1-10.
Community
First, let’s glance at Acts 2:41-47:
“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
A lot of people, when looking at this passage, don’t include verse 41; I include it here to lay the foundation that this is, in fact, talking about the church. This is the first generation Christian church; and look at the description: Devotion to the teaching of God and to fellowship (v.42). These two things are exemplified throughout the passage. They are celebrating the Lord’s Supper together regularly, gathering together and loving and ministering to one another as anyone had need. They praised the Lord and people were being saved. Luke wrote in this account of the formation of the church that not only did they love one another, they were “having favor with all people.” (v.47). And God was saving people every day. Thy were exemplifying the commands of the Lord to love God and love your neighbors (Matthew 22:37-39).
When a church is gathered, whether on Sunday or any day, and there is no real community, no Biblical fellowship of the believers, then there is something wrong with that church.
Discipleship
Secondly, let’s look at Titus 2:1-10:
“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:1–10, ESV)
This passage from Titus is all about discipleship. I’ve preached and (probably) written before about the beginning of discipleship is evangelism. However, we must realize that Titus was written regarding the church, as is much of the New Testament, so we are talking about those who are already believers. To sum up this passage (and this is not a all-encompassing summation), I would give the overview as this: Older men disciple younger men, older women disciple younger women, all in the faith to the glory of God. Within the body of believers that is the church, we ought to be seeing much discipleship going on. Mature believers must be discipling the immature. Men discipling men. Women discipling women. Married couples discipling other married couples.
In our day and age, it seems that many churches have not just let discipleship wane within the church, but have completely left it behind. And when there is no discipleship going on within the church, there will be no growth within the church.
Community and Discipleship Together
The decline in living in community, or active fellowship within the church has a direct correlation to the lack of discipleship within the church. They both feed off one another causing each other to worsen. When you are not living as community, as brothers and sisters in Christ who are neighbors according to the Scriptures, you won’t have the proper discipleship of mature Christians discipling immature Christians. And that lack of discipleship leads directly to a further breakdown in community within the church, and so much more. There is so much more that it the lack of fellowship and discipleship lead to within the church, and I just do not have the space to put it all here. If you’re concerned for the body of Christ, you’ll be able to see it in your thoughts as you read through and see the reality of these words.
So, what do we do? Easier said than done, but we encourage both community and discipleship within the church. We steer our relationships within the local body of Christ towards the glory of God and growing in sanctification through community and discipleship. Proper God-glorifying discipleship with lead to a better sense of fellowship and community within the church. Proper community and fellowship will tend itself towards more Titus 2 discipleship amongst the believers. And that is something that we, the body of Christ, all need at this point in time.