Headship: Church According to God’s Authority

The Need

• Churches will often design their activity based on one of these priorities:some text
  • Traditions
  • Trends
  • Truths
• Without clear standards of what drives the mission, churches can wander into attempting to baptize worldly principles for church growth.
• Churches can wander from the mission via doctrine or practice. some text
  • Some churches die because they preach unbiblical doctrines and experience no genuine transformation.
  • Some churches die with healthy doctrine but unhealthy practices that distract them from the mission.
• Many churches lose momentum because they get so bogged down in administrative issues that they cannot focus on missional imperatives.

The Word: 1 Corinthians 3:1-16

• Churches experience conflict when their members act childish, worldly, or divisive (see 1 Cor. 3:1-3).
• A church can get stuck when they idolize periods of time or people of influence within the congregation’s history (see 1 Cor. 3:4-5).
• If a church succeeds in God’s purposes, it is due to God’s involvement (see 1 Cor. 3:6-9).
• Churches must be built on continuing the message and ministry of the foundation that Jesus laid (see 1 Cor. 3:10-11).
• God often refines Christians and churches to where only the essentials remain (see 1 Cor. 3:12-15).
• Never forget that a church is a group of people – not a stack of bricks (see 1 Cor. 3:16).
• God takes those who ruin churches very seriously (see 1 Cor. 3:17).

The Task

• The message of the Christian faith cannot change no matter what transpires within any given culture.
• The method of ministry practices should have reasonable freedom to adjust to current needs.
• The means of organizing a local church either supports or stifles the work.
• To undertake the work of organizing a church while neglecting God’s directives is unthinkable.
• God promised to build His church, and we must ensure we aren’t complicating the process.