II. Calling and the Church
From Gathering Together to Being United with Christ
God calls people in Christ and brings those who have received grace into the shared life of His people. Believers personally trust Christ and, through Him, belong to one another. Together they worship, receive teaching, learn to love one another, and bear witness to Him.
Peter calls believers “a chosen race”, “a royal priesthood”, “a holy nation”, and “a people for God’s own possession”. He also explains that they are to proclaim the excellence of the One who called them out of darkness into His marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9, excerpts). These descriptions have a corporate meaning: God makes them His people and enables them to bear witness together to His salvation.
Thinking about the church’s calling therefore requires us to address two questions together: Who are we? How should we live together and fulfil what has been entrusted to us?
“From gathering together to being united with Christ” emphasises that the church’s gathering needs to be centred on Christ. Worshipping together, praying, receiving God’s word, and serving one another are all important aspects of church life. These practices also need to help the whole community know Christ more deeply, remain faithful to Him, and be built up in love.
1. Calling Helps the Church Know Who We Are
The church is a community that has received grace in Christ and belongs to God, with members who belong to one another. Paul describes the church as Christ’s body and identifies Christ as its head (Ephesians 1:22–23). The church receives life from Christ and acknowledges Him as Lord. Its teaching, leadership, and arrangements also need to be guided by His word.
Buildings, organisational structures, budgets, and scheduled activities can serve the church’s shared life. Yet they cannot provide the ultimate basis of its identity. Nor can the size of a congregation or the abundance of its resources, on their own, show whether a community is faithful to Christ.
Recognising to whom it belongs leads the church to keep examining whether its teaching is faithful to Scripture, how it treats people, and how it uses resources and authority. One shared question can guide this discernment: Do our decisions help people know the Lord, obey the truth, and love one another?
This identity also helps believers understand their relationship with other members of the body. We receive grace together and need to learn to support one another. Each person’s needs, weaknesses, and growth concern the life of the whole community.
The church ultimately belongs to Christ. No leader, institution, or tradition can therefore replace Christ as the centre of believers’ lives. Leaders bear responsibilities for service and teaching, and also need to be guided by God’s word together with the whole community.
2. Calling Brings the Church Back to Christ
When Paul discusses the church’s growth, he connects knowing the Son of God, maturity, holding to the truth in love, and being joined to Christ the head (Ephesians 4:13–16). This shows us that the church’s growth needs to become evident in how the whole community knows the Lord and lives.
An increase in numbers, the development of ministries, and improved resources can be reasons for thanksgiving, and also bring new responsibilities. At the same time, the church needs to consider whether believers understand the gospel more clearly, are learning to turn away from sin and live honestly, and are willing to listen, offer counsel, forgive, and share responsibilities in their relationships with one another.
Turning to Christ requires ongoing confession of sin and renewal. A church may neglect people in its busyness, cease to think seriously about the truth while maintaining familiar habits, or avoid problems in order to protect its image. God’s word leads the community to face these ways of going astray and learn to make practical changes.
If there is harm, injustice, or a failure to fulfil responsibilities within the church, responding to Christ includes establishing the facts honestly, protecting those who have been harmed, and taking the responsibility that is required. Shared prayer and confession need to be accompanied by concrete action: addressing wrongdoing, accepting the consequences, and repairing relationships and adjusting arrangements as the circumstances require.
The church can learn new methods and needs to improve its organisation and communication. These efforts should help the community become more faithful to Christ. True renewal takes place in worship and teaching, and is also evident in how the community handles problems, uses authority, and cares for people in daily life.
3. Calling Leads the Church from Gathering People to Building Them Up
Christ gives different people to serve, in order to equip the saints for the work of ministry and build up His body (Ephesians 4:11–12). The purpose here is to equip believers to participate together in service and grow in knowing Christ.
Gathering together is itself deeply significant. Believers express their belonging in Christ by worshipping God together, receiving His word, praying, and encouraging one another. Hebrews also urges believers to consider one another, encourage love and good works, and not give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:24–25).
Building people up means helping believers understand the truth they believe and learn to obey it in family life, work, and relationships. Through teaching, companionship, pastoral care, and serving together, the church can help people recognise their gifts, face their weaknesses, and gradually take on appropriate responsibilities.
Equipping people also requires attention to their growth. A person’s willingness to serve does not mean that they are ready to carry every responsibility. The church needs to provide preparation, guidance, and support so that people can learn through practice, with room to acknowledge mistakes and make changes.
Nor can building people up be measured solely by how much work they can carry. Believers experiencing illness, loss, or difficult circumstances also need pastoral care and companionship. Helping people know and trust Christ, and learn love and honesty in His grace, is itself an important part of nurturing their lives.
The church’s shared life and daily practice support one another. Believers receive help in the community and bring the truth they have received into daily life. The questions they encounter in life also need to be brought back to the community, where they can continue learning through teaching and companionship.
4. Calling Brings the Church from a Focus on Ministries Back to Its Mission
Ministries are the specific ways in which the church carries out its service, requiring appropriate organisation and arrangements. Biblical teaching, discipleship, visiting, hospitality, care, and gospel witness can be carried out through different ministries. Each arrangement needs to answer this question: How does it help the church remain faithful to the responsibilities Christ has entrusted to it?
When an activity continues over a long period, people may gradually focus only on keeping it running, rarely reconsidering the purpose it serves. The church can therefore review regularly what needs a ministry is addressing, whether people are receiving appropriate help, and whether resources and the burdens on participants are being considered carefully. Such review must always be grounded in faithfulness to the truth.
Reviewing ministries may lead to new arrangements, or require existing activities to be adjusted or brought to an end. Such decisions require prayer, discussion, and an informed understanding of the situation. They cannot be based solely on attendance, the level of excitement, or short-term results.
Nor can the church’s mission be defined solely by a particular leader’s personal aspirations. Christ has already made known the commands entrusted to the church as a whole. Local churches need to consider their setting, the needs of the community, and the resources they have received in order to discern carefully how to participate.
Allowing mission to guide ministries enables the church both to act responsibly and to remain open to examination. We can make plans, but need to keep considering whether they truly serve the purposes of knowing Christ, building up believers, loving one another, and bearing witness to the gospel.
5. Calling Enables the Church to Function as Christ’s Body, with Each Part Fulfilling Its Role
Paul explains that the church is joined together through Christ, with each part contributing according to its function so that the body is built up in love (Ephesians 4:16). First Corinthians 12 also teaches that, although there are many members, they belong to one body, need one another, and care for one another.
Different gifts and responsibilities do not create a hierarchy of human worth. Public preaching needs the support of other members. Hospitality, visiting, prayer, giving, and practical care also play important roles in the community’s shared life. The church needs to recognise and respect these different contributions.
Everyone’s participation in service does not mean that everyone holds the same role. Teaching, pastoral care, and governance have corresponding requirements and call for careful preparation and examination according to Scripture. Other members can carry responsibilities suited to their gifts, abilities, and circumstances.
Helping one another also includes accepting help. Paul emphasises that members who seem weaker are indispensable, and calls the members to care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:22–26). Illness, old age, or difficult circumstances cannot take away a person’s belonging within the community.
A healthy church therefore encourages participation while also caring for people within their limitations. When a member can no longer continue their previous ministry, the community should still respect and accompany them, helping them continue to trust the Lord in their new circumstances.
The church’s life becomes evident in shared worship, mutual edification, and daily practice. As believers remain faithful to Christ in their families, workplaces, and society, they also need to continue receiving truth together with other members of the body, sharing their needs, and supporting one another.
6. Calling Helps the Church Keep Its Direction in Changing Times
Cultures, ways of life, and communication tools change. The church needs to understand its setting carefully, recognise the questions people actually face, and learn to communicate the gospel clearly and appropriately.
New tools can help with teaching, communication, and connection, and new arrangements may improve service. Yet these choices need to be guided by the mission entrusted to the church. Ways of communicating can change, but the Christ to whom the church bears witness and His salvation cannot be redefined by personal preferences or social expectations.
The church needs to keep holding fast to the testimony proclaimed by the apostles and recorded in Scripture, responding in truth and love to the actual questions and needs people face.
Even when a particular way of communicating is popular, we still need to examine whether it is faithful to the gospel. Even when a method has been used for a long time, we still need to assess whether it can appropriately serve today’s needs.
Adapting to change requires shared discernment within the community. Members of different ages, cultures, and experiences can help the church understand its circumstances more fully. Leaders should listen carefully to others, explain clearly the basis of their judgements, and be willing to learn and make corrections in practice.
Change may bring new opportunities or restrict existing ministries. The church can rearrange how people participate, while continuing to worship God, teach the truth, love one another, care for those in need, and bear witness to Christ.
Calling helps the church know to whom it belongs and guides it in learning to live together, face change, and carry the responsibilities God has entrusted to it. The whole community receives life in Christ, relies on Him, helps one another, is built up in love, and bears witness together to the God who grants them grace, redeems them, and calls them.