You might see different things when you walk into a church service.
- Some churches are heavy on formality and ritualism and some are very casual and informal.
- Some churches emphasize the Bible and Bible study. Some who emphasize Bible study may put much more emphasis on the New Testament than the Old.
- Some churches are heavy on the social aspect of Christianity and the whole assembly may be punctuated with meals and snacks and such like with minimal Bible study.
- Some churches emphasize acceptance of other people to the extent that they ignore open sin and do not hold their members to any level of accountability.
- Some churches emphasize the positive aspects of God and de-emphasize God’s hatred of sin.
All the examples listed above are examples of churches who are out of balance. The dangerous thing about out of balance churches is that they may produce Christians who are also out of balance.
The church functions to assist in the production of Christians who are the mirror images of Jesus Christ. To do so Elders must lead the congregations they have authority over by teaching the Bible in a comprehensive way… a balance of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Elders must not neglect the powerful social aspect of the Gospel of Christ and must encourage its members to fulfill their social obligations to each other. Elders should inform the congregations members that Jesus wanted his people to be sin-free and that open sin in the congregation will not be ignored.
Elders should give careful consideration to how the congregations they work with function so that on The Day when these congregations of people are delivered up to God for evaluation they may be found healthy and whole.
