Question 4 - Should the Church Be More Focused on Outreach or Personal Growth?

#4 Should the Church Be More Focused On Outreach and Serving OR Christian Fellowship and Personal Growth?
Simple answer, the Church Universal and the Church Local should be about all of these. The Church should be about outreach (the Great Commission) Serving the less fortunate as well as enjoying one another in fellowship and sharpening one another so we grow in our faith. You have to find that balance. And the hard thing is finding that balance.. You find churches that are really good at the fellowship and focus on inner doings of the church. The problem with that is that church becomes no more than a social club and has no impact on the outside world. Then you have a problem the other way, where you get people who focus so much on Serving God that it replaces sitting still and Knowing God. It is that balance that all churches should be a part of. That is why, Ephesians tells us, that God has giving people spiritual gifts. Gifts that they can give to the church. There are those who are gifted with service they should serve, those gifted in evangelism, they should be about outreach. There are those gifted in Teaching, they should feed the flock. There are Encouragers who should build up others and Pastors who oversee these ministries. This is why Paul gives the analogy that just has a body has many parts that do different functions but they all serve the body the church has many different parts and functions but it’s all for the purpose of building of the Church. That is why God has give you each a gift, for the purpose of not building you up, but the church so when you do not exercise your gift it is not you who suffer it is the body of Christ.