How the Modern Church is Limiting the Body of Christ
by Christopher Wells 3/2025
When Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven over two thousand years ago, He left behind the seeds of the church in the form of a group of disciples. He had lived with this core group of twelve disciples for approximately three years and in that time had taught them much about what having a vital relationship with God looked like. A short time later, those same disciples, along with over a hundred other believers, were assembled in the upper room praying, and the Holy Spirit of God descended upon them, filling them with the very presence of God on the Day of Pentecost. Overwhelmed with this new and glorious infilling, they spilled out into the streets of Jerusalem, speaking in new tongues and being heard in a variety of languages by the multi-cultural throng. The people heard the convicting message delivered by the disciples of Christ, and many chose to believe in Jesus as their personal Savior that day. Thus, the Christian church was born.
In that day, there were no denominations, no organized church corporations with buildings and budgets, and no full-time paid staff. Worship services looked very different than they do today in most church services in America and much of the world. They were humble beginnings unspoiled by excessive money or fame, book deals, lucrative television contracts, or internet channel followings. The modern organized church of today often bears far too little resemblance to those humble beginnings, central to which were the weekly group meetings where the most vital practices of the church were on full display.
So, what did those most vital assemblies of the believers look like in those early days? Paul gives us the most complete description of such a gathering of the church in 1st Corinthians 14:26-33 (NASB95):
26 What is [the outcome] then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, [it should be] by two or at the most three, and [each] in turn, and one must interpret; 28 but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. 30 But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; 33 for God is not [a God] of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
The word translated ‘prophesy’ in verse thirty-one means, among other things, to “the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God” (Vine, 1996).
I tell you the truth and am grieved in my spirit to say it, that there are precious few assemblies of believers in the West today whose weekly assembly on Sundays (or any other day of the week) even faintly resemble this description. In most church gatherings in the Western world, the vast majority of speaking time is reserved for one person (almost certainly a man) who completely dominates the discourse of the meeting and whose gifts are almost exclusively on display week after week after week. This practice results in the neglect of the vast wealth of revelation, encouragement, exhortation, and teaching that is available in the other members of the Body of Christ, letting it rot like fruit on a vine that is never picked.
When church leaders implement this practice, the message that is conveyed to the vast majority of believers is that any revelation or encouragement they have to bring to the Body of Christ is of little importance, that they are too ignorant or too immature to competently minister to other believers, that their gifts are lesser than and of minimal value to the Body of Christ. They are taught that ‘real’ ministry should be left to the professional ministers, relegating the vast majority of congregants to cheering from the sidelines and never getting to participate in the ministry that—according to the Bible—is their birthright. Much like spectators at a professional football game, they are taught that they can never be good enough, fast enough, proficient enough—in short, that they can never be good enough—to do what the professional minister does. Through this passive or active neglect on the part of church leadership, followers of Christ are taught that one man’s gifts (i.e. the pastor’s) are of paramount importance to their spiritual lives and that their allegiance should be primarily to him (second only to God) as their teacher and dispenser of all truth.
The message is clear. The paltry offerings of the believers in the audience—for whom Christ died and in whom dwells the very same Spirit of God Who raised Christ Jesus from the dead—are not required nor greatly desired in the gathering of the faithful. In these meetings, when the congregation is allowed to participate in the service it is kept to the fringes, much like the garnish on a centerpiece turkey at a Thanksgiving meal—and it is treated with about as much importance.
This, my dear friend, is contrary to the teachings of Christ and the Bible and is a travesty of great significance. This attitude grieves the Holy Spirit and robs the Body of Christ of many precious gifts that would help to advance the cause of Christ in the world and minister to His Body. To be sure, gatherings to hear anointed preachers and teachers of the Gospel are an important part of Christian life, but these types of meetings are secondary to the most important meeting of the Body of Christ—the weekly worship service where the Body of Christ is called to minister to each other through all its various members as described so well in 1st Corinthians 14.
It seems that many church leaders have forgotten the purpose of the five-fold ministry, which is stated in Ephesians 4:11-12 (NASB95):
11 And He gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] evangelists, and some [as] pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
What greater service can a believer perform than to accurately and effectively communicate the Gospel? How can a believer build up the body of Christ while remaining mute in the audience and never speaking or doing anything except according to the pre-ordained order of service which is strictly controlled by the church leadership? How can a believer be expected to effectively promote the Truth of God to a world in desperate need of both rational and Spirit-led persuasion when the very institution put in place by God to help equip them to do so often suppresses any chance for the average believer to develop (i.e., practice using) these gifts within the local body of believers?
As any internet search will confirm, statistics show that church organization attendance in America has been declining for decades. Yet, you will also find that the percentage of those claiming to be followers of Christ has not declined in similar fashion. Why is this? To hide behind the accusation that all of the people who left church are either rebellious or unable to move past being ‘church hurt’ is to ignore the elephant in the room. Covid showed us this. After the Covid pandemic, there remained a sharp decline in church attendance from pre-Covid levels. Why? Did all of these people suddenly become offended with the church organization en masse? Of course not. So, why did this happen? For one, many people discovered that it was just easier to tune into the internet and watch than take the time to show up at an organized church service. And why not? Attending an organized church service in most cases is largely a spectator event. As an attendee, I am not expected to participate much in the service, with the exception of standing up to sing or putting money in the offering plate. The interaction with other believers is kept to a minimum with the strict order of service and class meetings that conspicuously avoid much, if any, role for the attendee beyond sitting in a chair and asking the occasional question. But, according to the Bible, this is not how a gathering of the faithful is supposed to be. In the passage from 1st Corinthians 14, we see a demand put on individual believers to be active participants in the body life service: When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation (1st Corinthians 14:31, NASB95, emphasis mine).
Why do so many church organization leaders today, far from encouraging their congregants to fulfill their biblical mandate to minister to one another, actively discourage people from obeying the instructions in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth? Perhaps this is the reason some believers no longer see the point in regularly attending church organization services. Perhaps they perceive the void of something essential to the Christian community and long for something more fulfilling, and, often not finding that expression in the local church organization, decide they will no longer come or decide to attend less frequently. After all, if we are just spectators in the church service, then why not avail ourselves of the best spectator experience possible, which the internet has made easily available to all? We can watch the most gifted teachers from current and past generations deliver powerful teachings and sermons without ever having to leave the comfort of our own homes.
Many church organization leaders would be quick to respond that the Bible encouraged believers not to forsake assembling together (Hebrews 10:25). This is true, yet the Bible also contains the passage to the Corinthian church describing the events that were expected to take place in those same assemblies. Why have so many church organization leaders emphasized the former teaching and neglected the latter? I suggest that we are all the poorer for it.
In closing this essay, I issue a challenge to everyone reading it. If you are a participant in a local organized church where the activities that are described in 1 Corinthians 14 are not a regular part of your services, I challenge you to engage with your leaders and ask them why this is so. If you are a leader in such a church organization, then I challenge you to prayerfully consider the questions posed in this essay. There is One to Whom you will one day give account for how you shepherded God’s people, and He will not take it lightly if you did so without studying to show yourself approved, rightly dividing the Word of truth, and carrying it out to the best of your ability as you have opportunity to do so. The time is short and we have much work left to do. We need every member of the Body of Christ at their most spiritually fit in order to do it. Following the Biblical pattern will give us the best chance of accomplishing that, with God’s blessing and continued guidance.
Bibliography:
NASB95 – New American Standard Bible. Retrieved from https://www.blueletterbible.org
Vine, W. (24 Jun, 1996). Prophecy, Prophesy, Prophesying – Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Retrieved on March 21, 2025 from https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/Dictionary/viewTopic.cfm?topic=VT0002236
Additional links of interest:
Image used as article header: https://unsplash.com/photos/photo-of-brown-wooden-cross-at-cliff–wT0iS-TSZM?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash
The website of author C.L. Wells 