Our Job: Building Up
April 19, 2011
Dear Friends,
Ecclesias are like families. They are so much like families we even call ourselves brothers and sisters. Ecclesias can have outstanding qualities like our families – respites from the storm, places of love and encouragement, places where you find answers to questions and life’s problems. Yet, let’s be honest, like our natural families, some ecclesial families can have a degree of dysfunctional.
Families and ecclesias should be places where we are built up. Both should teach us to be more like Christ and to give us the confidence and the skills to face the world. Did you ever notice that dysfunctional families tend to produce dysfunctional children? For example, if the parents are abusive, the children tend to abuse their own children when they grow up. Likewise, ecclesias that tear down rather than build up tend to produce a similar result. It is the “gift” that keeps on giving.
The Apostle Paul says “encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (1 Thess. 5:11 ESV) Building each other up is not a silly, unimportant sideline of ecclesial life, but the very essence of it. The idea behind families is to produce mentally, spiritually and physically sound human beings by instilling in them the character of God. Likewise, the ecclesia is to take individuals from many families and reconstitute them into a new family – the family of God – where they can successfully complete their journey toward God with the help and guidance of other likeminded individuals with the same goal. It stands to reason then that “building up” someone is vital in the process of producing individuals for the Kingdom of God.
In my experience, building people up depends entirely on the individual even if we can make some generalizations by age, gender, socioeconomic conditions, etc. In a healthy, functioning ecclesia, the individuals look for ways to help each other out and build each other up. This means that we might build up one person in an entirely different manner from another person. We might build up an elderly brother by letting him know that he is still valued and appreciated. We might build up a teenager in the ecclesia with low self-esteem by reminding her of how important she is to us and of her many strong qualities. To do this, we must be involved with people. We must have good relationships which extend well beyond Sunday morning or we will not be the position to help at all. We do well to heed the guidance of the book of Proverbs when it says “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.” (27:23 NIV)
The importance of building up also comes into play in how we arrange our activities whether Sunday morning or a Bible class or a picnic. Everything needs to be planned with a view toward building up. Everything needs to be conducted with a view toward building up. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:26,
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (ESV)
Are we meeting people’s needs? Do we even know what their needs are to begin with? Are we prepared to gain the skills needed to build people up? These are a few questions we need to ask ourselves in our effort to gain people for the Kingdom of God.
Have a great week,
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