THE CHURCH IS AN ORGANISM NOT AN ORGANIZATION

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By Akin Ojumu

The living Church is not an invention of the human mind, and it is not conceived in the imagination of the human soul. The Body of Christ is not a human institution, and it is not an earthly organization. God’s Church is not a secular entity that can be inherited or passed down as an inheritance. No man owns it as his own right, and no man runs it of his own might. 

The Church is not a spectator sport where people go to support their clubs and get the cup of their thrill filled up to the brim. It is not professional pulpitism financed by tithe-paying and offering-giving members, and populated by giddy spectators whose sole role is to cheer along from the bleachers, hooting and hollering, “Preach it, Pastor!!! or yelling and screaming, “Halleluiah, Pastor!!!”

The Church is eternal and supernatural. Its head is Christ, who lives forevermore. Its members are genuinely born-again Believers in Christ who have been imbued with eternal life. The Church is everlasting, and it cannot die. The Body of Christ is indestructible, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

The Church is a living, breathing, spiritual organism that functions as life and breath. Every member is indwelled by the Holy Spirit who gives them the very life of God. To each and every member is given spiritual gifts and special abilities, all of equal value and equal importance, intended for the purposes of ministering to one another and for building up the whole Church.

No member is intended to use their spiritual gifts or abilities for puffing up themselves. The gifts and abilities are given by the Holy Spirit to be used solely for the edification of one another. And the Church functions maximally only when every member uses their spiritual gifts and abilities to edify others.

When this occurs, when every member uses their gifts and spiritual abilities to the edification of one another, the Church functions in spiritual harmony and operates in divine symphony.

That is why the Church is seen as a Body, and everyone born of the Holy Spirit is a member of that Body. The Church is the living manifestation of the fullness of the character of Christ. It is the Body of Christ. The Church is the representation of Christ on earth.

The end result of a fully functioning Church is that the Body of Christ attains to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4). 

And it is a maximally functioning matured Church manifesting the attributes and characters of Christ that is able to impact the world and transform the society.

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