Priority #3: Building Up the Church Both Locally and Globally

“When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26).

Here Paul speaks quite categorically about the purpose of the gathering of the saints. Interestingly, the New Testament places little emphasis on worship per se as the purpose for the gathering of the church – not because worship is unimportant, but because it is to be continual and pervasive (Rom. 12:1). When the church gathers, however, each has been given a gift to be used for the building up of the body. Or in Paul’s stunning words: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7). And what is true of the church locally is also true of the church globally: the varied distribution of gifts are to be used for the building up of the church around the world.