Member Participation Problems Which Affect the Successful Growth of the Christian Church

“the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body” (Eph 4:16)

Only “the proper working… individual… causes the growth of the body.” Only “the proper working… part causes the growth,” not the parts that work improperly. Broken or missing parts can stop or significantly slow the movement of any body toward good growth. Therefore, each member must understand the difference between working properly and improperly, effectively and ineffectively, successfully and unsuccessfully with his gift in order to cause the church to grow in some way vs. decline in some way.

Below are examples that will show you the difference between members who are properly working with their gifts and members who are not properly working with their gifts. These examples seem to cover most of the member participation problems that the Christian church must successfully solve.

1. The Attending vs. the Absent Member

It is obvious that the Absent Member takes his seat at the top of the list of member participation problems. Where do you take your seat?

The Difference Between the Attending Member & the Absent Member

The Attending Member Is in the Habit of Attending All Regular Church Meetings While the Absent Member Has a Habit of Not Attending All Regular Church Meetings.

Explanation

(a) It Is a Sin to Be Missing Church

First of all, it is a most serious sin to be in the habit of missing regularly scheduled church meetings because God has commanded each member to attend them (He 10:25). Therefore, the Absent Member is sinning, unless he is ill or disabled.

Note: The Disabled Member deserves the habit of special love and care from the other members because he cannot easily or habitually attend church. He does not at all directly cause the church to decline. Instead, he can be used by God to cause the church to grow in the grace of serving members with limitations. Perhaps this is the disabled person’s type of gift.

A habit is a regular vs. irregular practice or pattern. When a member misses two or three meetings a year; this is not a habit, it is irregular. But when a member misses two or three regular meetings a month, and is not ill or disabled; this is a habit, it is a pattern. When a church schedules an irregular meeting, like once or twice a year, and a member misses it because of a previously scheduled activity, this is not a habit. But when any able member starts to miss more than one regularly scheduled meeting in a short period of time, he then is in the habit of missing church. He is sinning.

(b) It Is the Only Way for a Christian to Fulfill His Ultimate Purpose in Life

Second, the Absent Member most certainly will not fulfill his true and ultimate calling to use his gift to cause the church to grow because he is not in church. But the Attending Member has a chance to fulfill his ultimate purpose in life because he is in attendance.

(c) The Gifts, the Parts, Were Designed to Be Used in a Body, a Church

Third, the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been designed by God to be used in and for the church, mainly when the parts are assembled vs. disassembled. For example, “When you assemble [i.e. church] each one has a psalm, has a teaching, etc.” (1 Cor 14:26), meaning that each member has some sort of gift to use in the assembly either individually like teaching or together like singing. And, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit [i.e. a gift] for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7). Therefore, the gifts are not for the individual good but for the common good, the good of the group, the church. You cannot truly use or know how to use your talent for the church unless you are with the church. Members must be in attendance to be able to use their talents to help the church reach its goal to grow. Members of any other body, like work bodies or sports bodies, cannot help their co-workers or their teammates unless they go to work, or go to practice, or go to the game. If they do not go to work or to practice, then they are not on the job; they are not on the team; they cannot help.

(d) There is No Good Reason for Any Able Member to Be Missing Church

Fourth and finally, there is no good reason for any member, young or old, to miss any regular church meeting, unless of course he is disabled. If you have confessed Jesus as Lord, if you have died to your sins, if you have been buried with Him in water baptism, if you have been raised up with Christ out of the watery grave of baptism to live the Christian life, then you are a member of the Christian church. And all members of the Christian church, young and old, must choose church first over any other type of activity. If not, you have a commitment problem. You are an uncommitted Christian. You are not serious about serving God. You are backsliding. You have your main priority out of order; God. You have put something before the kingdom and His righteousness. This is a form of the sin of idolatry. Therefore, do not let any activity get in the way of your attendance to regular church meetings.

Examples of Absent Members

(a) Members Who Have Schedule Conflicts [Priority Problems / Idols]

Things like work, school, or sports schedules contend with the church meetings. Church meetings are sacred and holy, so we need to treat them with reverence vs. irreverence; that is, reverent attendance vs. irreverent attendance.

If you are a free man, do not let anyone--your business, or your coach, or your school--create regular schedule problems with the sacred assembly/church. By faith, take a stand. If something is in the way of your church attendance, like work schedules or sports schedules, then you must thoughtfully plan to take a stand.

1. Request a Schedule Change

If it is fitting for you to request to be absent from certain work days or times or certain sport times in order to attend regular church meetings, then plan to make this request as soon as you can think it through properly.

2. Find Another Job That Does Not Hinder Your Attendance At All

If it is fitting for you to change jobs or to quit the team in order to be in regular attendance at church meetings, then do so as soon as you can think it through properly.

God provides a way out from temptation (1 Cor 10:13), even the strongest temptation. So do not fool yourself into thinking that you have the option to miss church because of work schedules, school schedules, or sports schedules, etc. Plenty of kinds of work, schooling, or play can be done before or after regularly scheduled meeting times. The problem is that unbelievers or un-committed Christians will interfere with your sacred and holy church schedule. Do not let them pressure you into keeping their sensually vs. spiritually designed schedule. Are you a free man?

(b) The Seed on the Rocky Soil [Shallow Christians / Backsliders]

This seed is like the member who gives up when things get hard or difficult (Mt 13:20). He quits going to church. He quits being a Christian. Think of all those disciples who stopped following Jesus after he made some hard statements about what faith in Him was all about (Jn 6:66).

(c) Christians Who Love the World

Demas represents Christians who use their gift to serve others. At some point they discontinue their use of it because they have chosen to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin instead of the holy joy of serving the Lord (2 Tim 4:10). They go back in to the world because they love it more than God. For anyone who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 Jn 2:15).

(d) The Betrayer of the Lord

Judas Iscariot left his place, ministry, or gift of apostleship for the sake of sordid gain (Ac 1:20).

Examples of Attending Members

(a) Paul

Paul constantly not only tried to make disciples, he spent a lot of time with them and tried to join up with them wherever they happened to be meeting while he was traveling (Ac 9:26). He would even depart after the meeting was over, not before or during it (Ac 20:11).  

(b) Anna

She was in the meeting place day and night (Lk 2:36, 37).

The rest of the member participation problems below are about members who are in the habit of attending church but are hindering the true growth of it in some significant way.

.... more about this in the Bible Study on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit