Son or servant: what’s the difference?
Both can live under the same roof and do the same work. One is there on terms and the other belongs. Jesus drew the line himself, and Paul built a letter on it.
There’s more to church.
Sons and daughters, not servants
Paul wrote that an heir, while he is a child, is no different from a slave. The gospel doesn’t only forgive us. It brings us into the Father’s house as sons and daughters who grow up, carry his name and take their place in what he is building.
Read moreThe son who never left home
Everyone remembers the son who ran off. Jesus kept the story going with the one who stayed, worked hard for years, and still stood outside the party.
Many teachers, not many fathers
Paul told the Corinthians they had countless guides and very few fathers. Teaching matters, but sons and daughters are raised. A spiritual father or mother walks with you for years, tells you the truth, and is glad when you go further than they did. No single pastor can do that for everyone.
Read moreWhat is a spiritual father or mother?
Even Paul had one, a woman whose name he never gives. What the New Testament means by spiritual parents, and the line they must never cross.
Why does a church need more than one pastor?
Moses sat judging the people from morning to evening until his father-in-law spoke up. The New Testament never left one man carrying a church.
Fed at a table, sent from it
They broke bread in their homes, and when persecution scattered them, ordinary believers carried the gospel wherever they went. Later the church in Antioch laid hands on two of its own and sent them out. Being planted in a family and being sent from it belong together.
Read moreWhy did the first church eat together?
One of the four things the first believers devoted themselves to was dinner. What a shared table gives a church that a service on its own can’t.
Who gets sent?
When the Jerusalem church scattered, the apostles stayed behind. The people who carried the gospel out had no title at all.
Your calling
Find your place in the body.
He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers to bring the whole church to maturity.
ApostleSees the bigger picture and builds.
ProphetHears what God is saying now.
EvangelistCarries the gospel past the walls.
PastorCares for people and holds them together.
TeacherGrounds us in the Word.
We tend to gather with people like us, by culture and by calling. But “the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12:21). The body grows when the parts that don't naturally sit together do.
Hear a story · 2 minPlanted and sent
Planted to be sent.
From the hills of Kyiv to Highland Avenue, the gospel has always travelled hand to hand. Now it's your turn.
[Film: a father and son walking the levee road at dawn]
Grow up in every way into him who is the head.
Ephesians 4:15Sundays 11:00am · 7833 Highland Ave, Citrus Heights