Article: God’s Communication Plan

for the Church

Trinity Christian Church of Greater Philadelphia

By Pastor Daniel Au

Communication is a big challenge in every church and our church is no exception to this. Put two people in a room together and they’ll eventually have problems getting across their ideas and having the other person understand what they’re thinking. Imagine how this is in a congregation of 100 or 200 people; in a church of 300 people.

Ever since sin entered the picture of human relationships, there has been difficulty in communication. However, God throughout history has emphasized communication with his people through revealing himself to his children. In choosing the nation of Israel, God spoke directly to his people through Moses and through the prophets. Working with his people, God reinforced the theme that communication with the Heavenly Father was the most important communication of all. His words and commands were written down in Scripture to enable us to understand his character and his will for us. All of this was a prelude to the ultimate revelation that came in the form of his very own Son, Jesus, who himself said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) We fully know our God through the life of Jesus recorded by the Holy Spirit through his servants in the Gospels. The life of the church is seen in the rest of the New Testament as Paul and others deal with issues in the early churches. Communication was a big challenge even at this time. No wonder God always reminded his people of the fundamentals from the very beginning: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Be right with God first and then we can have a right relationship with others around us.

Thank God he didn’t leave us alone to do this all by ourselves. He has established his church to be his representative here on earth. God looks out for his church and has given us the means to address our human communication problems by solving the communication problems of his people with Himself. In the New Testament, there are three keys to healthy communication in the church that God has commanded his people to follow: prayer, caring and discipleship.

Prayer. The prayer life of a church is vital for the spiritual health of a church and its members. Because there aspects of prayer to write about, I will just focus on how prayer benefits communication between members. Prayer, on an individual level, brings each Christian before the Lord in humility and thanksgiving and is a time of conversation with the Lord to examine our own lives and our conforming to Christ.

On a corporate level, as we pray for the concerns of our church and for one another, we expand our attention off of ourselves and direct it towards our brothers and sisters by bringing their concerns to the Lord on their behalf. There are two common problem in the corporate prayer life of a church: 1) members pray for such general things instead of specific things in our requests that there is no way to know if these prayers are being answered; 2) members pray only for the success of ministries or programs so that our prayer life lacks any intimacy and personal connection with individuals in our church family. It’s possible to be distant and impersonal even when praying for others. God however tells us to be involved with one another’s lives. We consider others to be as important as ourselves.

There is an important consequence of prayer – drawing people together. Prayer draws us closer to God. Praying for one another draws us closer because it makes us pay attention to the real needs that each of us have and draws our attention to Christ working in our midst. A church with a healthy corporate prayer life communicates better and knows each other more intimately. We hear not only the words of the prayers of other members, but we get to see into their hearts as well. Just as Jesus in the garden prayed for his disciples saying, “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” (John 17:9). In the church, Jesus has given us each other. Each of us have a responsibility in Christ to seek out how to pray for one another better either by directly asking or indirectly paying close attention to the lives of other family members in Christ. We also have the joint responsibility of praying for the church with the same purpose. This joint dependence on Christ unifies the body of believers in concerns and purpose and together we seek his glory. We must seek to pray together more in this church in a more intimate, deliberate and God-focused way.

Caring. Communication is also strengthened through the active caring of members for one another. Just as we know our own needs and we seek to address those needs, we should also be aware of the needs of our fellow members. After all, we are to love others as we love ourselves.

However, caring is not simply making people feel welcome or comfortable in the church – that’s hospitality. In the Bible, we see caring done for a specific purpose: to remove any hindrances, very often physical needs, of a person to free them up to come to know the Lord. The object of caring is to enable others to know the Lord better – Jesus is always the reason! These needs may be the basics: clothing, food, or shelter. Jesus’ teaching always had a special care for the poor, needy, widowed and orphaned. The deacons of the early church had an important role of taking care of the physical needs of the members. If a person is too consumed by the need to find the basic necessities for himself or his family in order to survive another day, hardships seen immediately in front of him, how can he have the peace or attention to seek after a God he cannot see? Thus, many times real immediate needs need to be taken care of before the true needs – the need for a Savior – can be addressed. There are many other needs we can provide care by using His word and showing His love: people are gripped by fear, worries, hopelessness and other emotional and spiritual hurts. We care by offering the basic spiritual necessities, the truths of the Gospel, to meet these kinds of needs.

In order to care in real and significant ways, again we need to be in tune with the people around us. We need to seek out the hearts of others and to see past the external, superficial and the obvious. Often times needs are hidden, especially in the Chinese culture. However by prayerfully cultivating a genuine heart of caring and by the moving of the Holy Spirit, God helps us to see deeply to truly love and care for others. Our attention is fixed on helping others to know and see Christ more fully. What a wonderful thing if we could each say, “I can freely go and serve others because I have the confidence that others are likewise seeking to care for my needs.” A church full of members with this kind of sacrificial caring with a clear vision for Christ will inevitably grow closer together.

Discipleship. In the Great Commission (Matthew 28), Jesus tells us that one of the most important duties of all Christians is to disciple others in being obedient to Christ. Discipleship occurs any and every time brothers and sisters interact with one another through word and by action. Are we actively seeking to learn how to live as a Christian from one another? Do we have the mind of Christ as we interact with one another? We all have something to contribute if we desire to honor Christ every moment. Again the goal is clear, the purpose of discipleship relationships is to help one another to better obey our Lord. Again, Jesus is the object of this key of communication.

The focus is off of ourselves and onto the spiritual lives of others. We ask the question, “How can my brother or sister’s spiritual life grow and how is God using me to be a part of that growth?” Prayer and caring are integral to discipleship to help us be more aware of our neighbor in the presence and power of Christ. We see how our lives are interconnected with one another (Eph 4:15-16) and true unity can only come about by being united in our commitment and obedience to Christ. Peace in the church only comes by submitting to the Spirit. Learning to submit to the Spirit and obey Christ’s commands is the work of discipleship. And through a clear hearing of the Spirit, we will truly be one of heart and mind and communicate better with one another at the same time. May we truly come to know one another in prayer, caring and discipleship for the glory of Christ!