The Church’s Purpose

The church has been given the responsibility to instruct the members to grow in both grace and the knowledge of God and commanded to “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph 4:15-16) “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph 4:14) and “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:12). God has assigned each member as it pleases Him and so “he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers” the responsibility to oversee these functions (Eph 4:11).