11 And that same Christ gave these gifts to people: He made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to care for and teach God’s people. 12 Christ gave these gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger. 13 This work must continue until we are all joined together in what we believe and in what we know about the Son of God. Our goal is to become like a full-grown man—to look just like Christ and have all his perfection

Ephesians 4:11-13 Easy-to-Read Version

The gospel does not call us to be better Christians, but it calls us to be Christ and to reveal Christ to a world who does not know Him.

It is through Christ that we are brought close to the Father. It is in Christ that we find out who we are and how we ought to live. And it is from Christ that the Holy Spirit empowers us to experience the reality of being united in Him.

The Apostle Paul tells us the role of the five-fold ministry is to strengthen, equip and mature us to be like Christ and have all of His perfection. In this sense, Christian maturity is not simply the accumulation of bible knowledge but a deeper connection with God. It is an intimate knowing in our hearts about Christ that stirs us to love and act with spontaneous obedience.

The beauty of being united in Christ empowers us to be united as a church.

The church community, as a result, is not a collection of individual believers who live isolated lives with little or no community engagement, but rather t is a gathering of godly sons and daughters with one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). When we show love and demonstrate commitment to each other by sharing and caring, the experiences with our community will turn our sorrows and struggles into joy and jubilations.

All of us have our personal expectations of the church—and these expectations will vary from person to person. Truth is, no church community can ever meet all these expectations—and may even fail or disappoint us from time to time. What is critical is how we all learn how to grow together, understand how to resolve conflict in a healthy way, and to forgive and extend grace as we have been shown grace.

A good healthy community doesn't just happen.

It involves all of us, walking and working together with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), not just within our local churches but also with the greater body of believers in our city. It involves all of us knowing that there is no place for division or disunity because we are already perfectly joined together in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:10). It involves all of us speaking and living the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)—and demonstrating that truth to one another because we are all part of Christ's body.