God creates many churches so that each person can find one near them that fits their needs. Each church should become a family. Like a family, a healthy church should have people of different ages and levels of spiritual walk bonded together under a common ancestry. Like a family, a church will have a culture or atmosphere unique to their family. When one observes a family, they will describe it based on their culture or atmosphere; likewise with a church.

Therefore, what is a community church?

Church is not a “crutch” for the weak; it is more like a hospital for sinners in various stages of growth, healing, and restoration. Ministry should be applied to all members and the community with compassion and godly love. Ministry should not seek to be friends with the “world” and become like the “world”. The community church should be able to stand accountable before Jesus Christ against any judgments from the “world”. The church is called to be set apart from the “world” and to be as a “light on a hill”.

A local community church is a spiritual body wherein every member is a part of. The purpose of the church is to gather in worship of our Savior, to preach the Gospel, to make people disciples of Jesus, and to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It’s members are to carry out ministry known as “works” for the purpose of demonstrating a living faith.

James 2
14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.


A community church is one where God has ordained it to minister non-denominationally to all demographics and levels of faith. A community church will not be made up of predominantly retired people or predominantly young families or a single race of people. A community church appeals to people who enjoy diversity (tribes, nations, tongues—not ungodly lifestyles).

A community church will have members who are mature in the Lord and will be teachers and leaders; others will be new in the Lord and need mentoring. The mature can model a visible picture of where the young in faith can look forward to going. Seniors can enjoy the toddlers and young people can enjoy the life wisdom of seniors. Parents can enjoy other couples who are in similar stages of parenting. Singles can enjoy the fellowship of other believers who can strengthen them in faith. Broken people can be comforted, encouraged, and inspired by those who are sound in life. Single parents need a refuge and respite from the hectic life they deal with.

A community church congregation with such varied makeup requires that the elders must prayerfully find a way to minister to all needs in a biblical way that supports the growth of faith. It is the responsibility of the elders to provide opportunities for service and leadership to those who are at that level of faith maturity. It is also the responsibility of the elders to see that not-yet believers are instructed and encouraged in the faith wherein they can surrender their lives to Jesus. In between all this, the elders need to counsel and educate the young in faith so that their lives can be molded in obedience to the Lord and grow to live in the full joy that Jesus desires for us. It is incumbent upon the elders to have a discipleship and spiritual growth plan for all levels of faith and demographics. Programs and activities should be cognizant of these varied levels and needs.

Ministry Purposes of a Community Church


Families should not be overburdened with demands on their time but should be led in proper focus and division of their life priorities. These needs demand that the elders provide bible study, teaching, exposition of tithing, and sound marital discipleship for strong family relationships.

Men and women each have their own spiritual needs. It is often helpful to take time to address them in a single gender study. There is no better place for men and women to talk about their issues in the godly counsel of others in their bible study group. Men and women should be given the opportunity to serve within the bounds of their spiritual maturity and family commitments.

Young people most certainly are in need of godly counsel and teaching. The bible teaches parents to train up their child in the way they should go. Wise parents realize they don’t know everything and it is advantageous to have other teachers to supplement the teaching from home. A godly group setting for young people gives them a short breath of freedom to grow and discuss things. Such group should not usurp the parents values and teachings but should support them. (put together a statement, mission, and purpose)

Single parents cannot be ignored as society’s failures. If anything, they are our failures. We did not bring them up in the wise counsel of the Lord. We were not there evangelizing, baptizing, or discipling them before their tragedy happened. We do have an opportunity to do our job now though. These parents do not have a supportive partner to care and instruct the children. The church must try to fill in some of the missing pieces in this broken family’s needs. The needs of a single parent family are likely greater than any other demographic. The church should not oppress them with man-made standards but should also try to encourage and inspire obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Single men and women and widow(s)(ers) have their own station in life that comes with unique spiritual needs. These brethren have both a greater struggle to be obedient to the Lord and a greater opportunity to be more effective in service to the Lord. The lusts and temptations of life prey on single men and women knowing that they don’t have that spouse to fulfill and contain these desires. They are missing the godly outlet for them. As they yield their lives to the Lord they will find that the extra time they have available by not devoting part of their day to the love and care of their spouse they can commit extra hours in serving the Lord. This can yield a spiritual powerhouse of a servant. These people have the time to visit the elderly, time to conduct bible studies, time to preach and evangelize, and time to serve the physical needs of the church. It is helpful to these people to have multiple days of activities at the church so as to fill their time with service to the Lord and not sowing to the flesh. These people are an asset in helping the church meet the needs of the poor and helpless that regularly come to the church seeking refuge and assistance.

As we can now see from the above discussion, the elders must wisely direct each of these groups. They must see that leaders are raised up for each group and must see that each group melds into the spiritual body.

Discipleship, not activity, is the bottom line

We are called by the Resurrected Christ to ‘go to the nations preaching the gospel, baptizing them, and make disciples’. This is not accomplished by a single church service each week.

Like the church of Sardis, we should not be full of activities with no substance. We need to guard against that. A simple measuring stick that is used each time a new program or activity is considered applied by the elders will keep a check on this. The study of the word of God should be central to any activity. The atmosphere of these activities should guard against the values and practices of ‘the world’.

The church should not insist on extreme involvement by the mature Christians and thereby create a new problem of ‘busy-ness’ for these believers. Balance is key.

Discipleship should have an intentional goal of bearing fruit from the life of that believer. Personal discipleship includes the following activities: regular worship, regular prayer, daily bible study, weekly group bible study and devotions, and occasional evangelism efforts.

Leadership will include a calling over and above discipleship. Positions include worship team, preaching and teaching, eldership, deacons, evangelism. The people called by God into leadership should meet the biblical requirements as well as having their weekly schedule ordered in such a fashion that they can truly put the work of God first without dropping the biblical requirement of managing their home life well. It is recognized that few members are called to be church leaders.

The bar for ministry service is lower than leadership and opportunities would include service to the nursing home residents, leading a small group bible study, and participating in any other ministry effort of the church.

Ministry, not activity, should be the directive

We believers are all called to be ministers. This requires personal discipleship efforts but Jesus also calls us to be an active Christian serving the advance of the Kingdom. Ministry is the fruit of discipleship. We are not obeying Jesus’ command to love our neighbor if all we do with our Christianity is go to church, go to work, and go home. Yes, we should not sacrifice time with our families for ministry...but, we should not forsake ministry outside our family. If we are devoting all of our non-vocational time on worldly or secular activities, how is that better than church activities? Are we preaching the gospel or making disciples with these non-church activities? Are we growing in our discipleship? Are we living a life sold out to the Lord?

Let’s Wrap This Up

Everything we do in life should reflect abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us. We should see that our personal lives and that of our family are being drawn closer to God and God drawing closer to us. Most people will need to reorder their weekly schedules to live this type of life. Family management should reflect a family abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in it. Increasing joy in the Lord will be the measurement of discipleship and abiding in Christ. The bible says that Christ is in all, and is all. Does our life reflect this?

Each believer ought to be involved in a particular local church were he/she receives teaching from the Word of God and contributes to the spiritual lives of others and is involved in having an outreach to the community and to the world. We see in the NT that God worked through the church fellowship in the lives of it’s members. Each man or woman of God was drawn in to a fellowship as their life, not just a once-a-week activity.