East Gippsland Gospel

I’ve formed the opinion over the last forty-two years that people leave a Church, or Churches divide, more often because of Ecclesiology than over secondary doctrines.

My observation is that there are three types of local Churches.

There is the “Events Co-Ordinator”  Church where a team of specialists put together an event each Sunday for the “laity” to consume. The only expectation on those attending is to fund the program conducted by the “specialist team”.

Secondly, there is the “we’re all one family” Church, where people are encouraged to “join the family” and once in, they are given job to do to keep them engaged. New members to the “family” are showered with attention to make them feel “at home”.

In both of the above, the dominant teaching is how to be a good corporate citizen and how to grow in “love” and “acceptance”. The goal is to keep people attending (whether Born-Again or not) in order to “grow the Church”.

Then there is the third type of local Church. It’s focus is on being faithful to Biblical structure and purpose. It may not be as large, but it makes disciples of Jesus, and for Jesus. It believes that it is the Church’s role to make disciples, and that Jesus said He will build His Church.

In Acts 2:47 we see that the Lord added to the Church “those who were being saved”. Can we not trust Him to continue to do the same?

We proclaim; He saves; and He joins those who are saved to the Church; then the Church teaches them all of His requirements, so they grow as disciples.

It seems so simple if we really trust God and His Word.

In which type of Church are you involved?