The Four C's of the Local Church

In my class, “Theological Basis of Biblical Counseling”, taught by Dr. Baker at The Master’s College, we have been studying the practices and purposes of the local body of Christ. We have spent over ten hours on this topic throughout this week, so consider the following points just a brief snippet of the whole. The point is that we must evaluate our churches in light of these four points and carefully examine how we are not balancing them properly in our own local body.

Content – Head:
This is the knowledge portion of church membership and participation. It is the preaching of the Word, the faithful exegesis of Scripture being proclaimed to God’s people on a regular basis. This is the necessary foundation for any other pursuits in the body of Christ. Eph. 4:11-13 – Saints mature by pastors equipping saints to do the work of the gospel. The end result is making a person like Christ. The pastor’s role is to unleash the potential of the church, getting the saints to do the work of the ministry and as they do so, they grow in the measure of Christ. This leads to the next “C” because it point to the fact that maturity is not knowledge, but knowledge and application!

Character – Heart
This is the “goodness” described in Ephesians 4. This refers to the workings of the inner person that have matured and been cultivated by the knowledge, or content. This is discipleship, which is not what we tend to typically think of when we say discipleship. It does not mean we meet every week and work through a book while enjoying some Starbucks. This means we are intentionally doing what we have learned by developing the inner person. Our character is the overflow of knowledge. This is obedience motivated by love for Christ. It is the unleashing of a desire to be Christlike in all ways!

Competence – Hands
This is the ability being described in Ephesians 4. Here is the outer manifestation of the knowledge and character being produced within. It is the acts of service and sacrificial ministry within the body. This is seizing every opportunity to live out visibly the changed person who has been transformed by the knowledge of God’s Word and ways. Paul worked with individuals. He discipled people and did it heartily – Col. 1:28,29 – He labored to the point of exhaustion. He was a public proclaimer, but also a person who cared deeply about others. Am I laboring to the point of exhaustion in developing a Christlike character? People talk about the things they find satisfying and the things they love. If people were more satisfied with Christ, we wouldn’t have to be placing guilt trips on people to get them on the mission field. Are you overwhelmed with God’s goodness and so satisfied with Him that He is all you can talk about? The tendency of man is to turn things into duty instead of delighting in obedience. What increases your love for the Lord?

Community – Home
This is the practicing of the “one anothers”. The phrase “one another” is used over 100 times in the New Testament. Obviously it was an integral part of the New Testament church and was intended to be part of our church today. I fear that many of us are well-equipped in the content and possibly even the character, but are failing miserably to exemplify competence. The warning here is that if we see that trend in our churches, then we should consider if the character we think we have is truly genuine or are we deceiving ourselves by our knowledge?

To make these four points come to life, consider this example (which my professor actually did in his church when he pastored for over twenty years):

A man comes in for counseling and you note a concern about his lack of leading his family in family worship. Instead of just telling him he needs to lead his family in worship, you invite him and his family for a meal, they join with you in your family worship, you discuss it at the next session, and then you take your family and go to their home so that he can lead in family worship with you observing. The goal is that the individual is no longer absorbing all the resources, but is being equipped to participate, and then is giving of himself to others.

I submit that as a local church we are too preoccupied with self, coming to the house of God on Sundays and even Wednesdays, studying the Word in personal time, and maybe even applying biblical principles in the raising of our children – but are we living in community with those in our local body? Would we be willing to do what this pastor did? To model a scriptural principle to another and his family, and then see it through by giving him the opportunity to learn it and apply it? It would seem that oftentimes we are only thoughtful to teach and hand out resources, but not so eager to dig into the trenches of each other’s daily lives. We want to give content, maybe take part in some ministry outreaches, yet live our own separate lives where we can hide away from God’s people and store up for ourselves the knowledge we have been so graciously given. Much to ponder in the days ahead…I pray that this time of equipping at school will not merely be content, but that I will seek to influence the body in whatever ways I am given opportunity. May I not soon forget these lessons!