03/08/25 RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE

03/08/25 RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE

Commitment to responsibility and giving account for our time and focus is a standard requirement throughout life.

I spent 16 years in the academic world, giving account daily, weekly, every six weeks, suddenly and without warning (pop tests), half semester, end of year testing.

I also worked in the work-a-day world (restaurant, fishing boats, newspaper distribution, funeral home and ambulance service, landscaping) during those years, and I had to give account for my time on the job.

Since graduating from Bible College, I have had various "tent maker" jobs as well as being Pastor of various local churches. All of those situations carried responsibility and accountability.

Being part of an athletic team requires performance, which is also true if you are part of a band or part of a debate team or part of a business, or part of the military, "and the beat goes on."

What about our responsibilities, performance, accountability as servants of God?

I am not only referring to personal activities as a follower of Christ. We are created in Christ Jesus to do good works, and God will judge us according to our works in the flesh (thoughts, words and deeds). This includes both our personal actions and public (body life) ministries. What services and ministries do we render in conjunction with the local body of believers?

As a pastor, I don't ask my parishioners for a written or verbal report on their body-life ministry and service. However, God has called us to be active in the building up of the body and in the evangelizing of the lost. The serious Christian knows what God requires, and the sincere Christian serves God because of love for God, love for other believers and love for the lost. We don't have to be pressured or hounded or constantly reminded. We have the Divine nature and therefore we want to do that which is pleasing in God's sight.

On a military model, (remember, we are Soldiers of the Lord and of the Cross), worldly military personnel (Army, Navy, Marine Corp, Air Force) must take care of their post, camp, fort, station, or ship, and they must maintain their equipment, train for action, deploy when directed, sacrifice, and obey their orders. The Army of God should do the same. Even if there is no E-Mail sent, asking for a 5 Point report concerning the previous week, each part of the each local body should be able to name specific duties they have fulfilled in service in their local ministry and their world-wide outreach (beginning in Jerusalem).

How would you like it if academics, athletes, musicians, businesses, health and medical workers, military or law enforcement gave only the same level of dedication as believers render to their local churches? More specifically, how would those other programs and services function if the workers were no more dedicated to their jobs as you are in serving your local church?

Obviously there are protocols in the marketplaces of life, "to make" people do what they are supposed to be doing. The church does not operate that way. There are also rewards that are provided for secular performances, such as financial, positional, power, fame, peer recognition, which are not connected to believer's ministry in local churches.

Obviously there are time requirements for most responsibilities in the secular world, which are not attached to Christian service in the local church. But the question needs to be considered, "how much of my time do I give to the actual work of God in my local church?"

This may include your time and effort in ministries such as music, grounds keeping, housekeeping, teaching, hospitality, administration. But there are other forms of Christian ministry that require "ground forces." But don't confuse church ministry with your own personal submission to God. The walk and warfare of a believer is both personal and corporate.

If we view church as simply a religious gathering, or a Christian entertainment venue, or a social setting, or a self-improvement club or a spiritually oriented group of cultural Christians, or even a warm Christian community for Biblical encouragement and training, then we really don't understand New Testament Christianity.

The Church is universal in the sense that it includes all redeemed believers, from the birth of the Church until the rapture of the Church, and the Church is also a localized gathering of believers with pastor, leadership, gifts, ministry, unity, accountability, and standing orders from God.
Remember...
God instituted the Church.
Christ gave His life for the Church.
Christ is the foundation of the Church.
The Church is the Body of Christ.
The Church is the Bride of Christ.
The Church is the Building or Christ.
Christ baptized, filled and purified His Chuch with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The Church was the recipient of Divine revelation.
Christ is coming back for His Church.
The Church is the pillar and support of the truth.
The Church is the recipient of the gifts of the Spirit, for the building up of the body and the reaching of a lost society.
The Church is the family of God, into which sinners are born again and nurtured and instructed and sent out as messengers, ambassadors, and soldiers.

We are the presence of Jesus reaching out to a wicked world: we are His hands, feet, voice, and heart, doing His work, serving tables, seeking the lost, setting the captive free, lighting the path of the sinner, calling people to repentance, proclaiming the salvation of God, reconciling the rebellious to Jesus.

Yet the local church is given more grief by its attenders, rather than self-denying service.

There are some who give no dedicated service to God and others.
There are some who give spare time to eternal purposes.
There are very few who live the life of a Christian soldier, and ambassador of Christ.

What could the church accomplish if Christian service was the driving force of even a few of those who call themselves Christian?

The church is not a failure because of the world, but the world is left in darkness because of a failed church.

Rise up O men of God.