Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A Healthy Church described by Greg Laurie

"One of the wonderful things about a healthy church is its diversity. That in itself is a witness to a divided world. It is a powerful testimony when someone can come into an assembly of believers and see that we have set aside our differences and there is unity.It doesn't mean there is uniformity. God can take the same gift and put it in the lives of two people, and it might manifest itself a little bit differently as the Holy Spirit works through human personality.

Ephesians tells us that God has given us these gifts "for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (4:12 NKJV). Another way to translate this verse is "to equip God's people for work and His service."

The word "equip" in the original language means "to put something back to its original condition." It is also a phrase that speaks of putting a bone back into place again. The idea is that we are getting back to God's original order when we do it this way, when we function as the church ought to function."

I say AMEN to this!!