Prayerfully Support The Mission

Friday, May 17, 2019

Growth Within The Body Of Christ


God's missional plan is the salvation and sanctification of the world (Eph. 1:9-10). This mission is best achieved when the Body of Christ operates as a fully functional ecosystem. Christ, is the head of the church, and believers are being fitted together with an expectation of a harmonious and interconnected togetherness. Ernest Best describes the way this spiritual ecosystem should function:
  "If one member fails to exercise his gift, that hinders both the growth of the whole and the individual growth of each member (no member can grow apart from the whole). The growth of each member is involved in the growth of the whole and the growth of the whole in the behavior of each member."[1]

 Essentially, God’s missional plan is best achieved when we cultivate an ecology in which every member can contribute to the mission, while still retaining their individual identities. Growing churches identify talent, invest in avenues for development and deployment with and eye toward replication. The mission is clear (Eph. 4-13).


[1] In Stephen D. Lowe and Mary E. Lowe, Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018), 59.

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