This Is Us: What It Means to Be the Church

One of the central truths we explored in our first sermon of This Is Us is that we belong to Jesus. The Church belongs to Him, not to its pastors, leaders, or even its members. Jesus is the head of His Church, and because we belong to Him, we also belong to one another.

In fact, the New Testament gives us more than 50 instructions about how we’re to treat one another. We’re told to love one another (John 13:34), bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), confess our sins to one another (James 5:16), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), forgive one another (Colossians 3:13), and serve one another (Galatians 5:13).

Think about how practical these instructions are. You can’t bear someone’s burdens if you don’t know what they’re carrying. You can’t practice forgiveness without relationships where people sometimes disappoint you. You can’t receive shepherding if you don’t have shepherds who know you, and you can’t build up the body with your gifts if you aren’t connected to the body!

These aren’t abstract spiritual ideals. They require real relationships, time together, and a willingness to be known.

And this is where we need to understand how the Church is supposed to work.

Ephesians 4:11–16 tells us that elders aren’t here to entertain or control God’s people, but to edify and equip them for the work of ministry. Ministry leaders (deacons) help organize and lead that work, but the ministry itself belongs to the saints. That’s all of us! Ordinary Christians, equipped by the Holy Spirit, doing the very work Jesus has called His Church to do.

Pastors aren’t hired to do everyone’s ministry for them. We’re called to demonstrate it, teach it, and equip others to do it. And our job description as members of Christ’s body is hardly unclear. Just look at those 50-plus “one another” instructions.

I love that I see this happening at Epiphany all the time. Often, before I can get to someone’s house whose child is in crisis, another brother or sister is already on their stoop praying with them. When I’m working and someone is in the hospital, there’s someone visiting, someone bringing groceries, someone checking in. That’s not a failure of pastoral ministry. That’s pastoral ministry working exactly as it should!

The Church isn’t supposed to be like Buc-ee’s, where the goal is to keep the doors open, wow everyone with excellence, and send them home impressed. We’re much closer to a wartime field hospital and training ground, where the wounded receive care, people are strengthened, and everyone is being equipped to serve.

And when we become members of a church, something changes in our posture. We go from being guests at the hotel to being part of the staff. It’s time to help wash the dishes! We aren’t simply here to receive ministry, but to take responsibility for one another and the mission Jesus has given us.

This is why church membership and covenant matter. It’s not about getting your name on a list or surrendering your freedom to an organization. It’s about making a real commitment to a real group of Christians with whom you’ll follow Jesus, grow, serve, forgive, and carry one another’s burdens.

Romans 12:5 says that we are “one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

We belong to Jesus, and because we belong to Him, we belong to each other.

If Epiphany is your church home, I want to encourage you to take that step of joining us in covenant. This commitment to one another isn’t something we invented; it’s rooted in the New Testament’s vision of the Church. God has given us a great cause, and He’s given us His Spirit and one another to accomplish it.

Let’s do this together!