Dharius Daniels - Is the Church Supposed to Do EVERYTHING?

Listen, I’m going to say something quickly, and I mean what I say. I’m saying it because I mean it. The church is not supposed to do everything. There are some things that you may expect the church to do that you are actually supposed to do, and I want to talk to you about this in this video. So, listen, I lead this community called Bible U, and it’s this incredible, incredible community. It truly is a tribe that we’re forming of people who say, «Listen, if I’m going to be all that I want to be spiritually, God is enough, but Sunday’s not.» There is information and some environments that I need that I won’t get through typical programming at a church. Watch this: there’s a community I want to be surrounded by that has a hunger level that matches mine. In a church space, it is «whosoever will, let him come, ” so everyone should be welcomed and not judged for wherever they are on their spiritual journey. Yet, at the same time, there are people in environments like local churches who need to be in community with others who have similar hunger. So, part of what we tried to do in Bible U is create that environment to say, „Hey, this is what we want to do. We want to take the quality of content that you would get in a Bible college and put it into a program and a format that speaks the language of and is relevant for the everyday Christian.“ That’s kind of what we did.

Here’s the point, though: what Bible U is, watch this, and as a senior pastor, I want you to see this. What Bible U is is a reflection of what the institutional church is not really supposed to do. Now, am I saying churches shouldn’t have some of these programs? Of course they should. We have a program called Change College. Here’s the point I’m making: there are times when people have frustrations because they have expectations of what an institutional church should be doing, not realizing and recognizing—listen to me—that God meets the needs of the world—listen to me, please—through the body, through the body of Christ, not through the programming of institutional churches. Now, I don’t want to play a semantics game here. When I say the body of Christ, of course the body of Christ is the ecclesia; the body of Christ is the church, right? But we can apply some sociological nuances to a theological organization. So let’s say you have an extended family and a nuclear family. It’s the same with the church: you have the gathered church and the scattered church. The whole body of Christ is all over the world; we are the church. For Matthew 28:19, the Great Commission to be accomplished, there must be local assemblies of churches in specific spaces carrying out their unique contributions to the Great Commission. When I talk about the institution of the church, that’s what I’m referring to. I’m not talking about the whole body of Christ.

There are people who feel strongly about what institutional churches should be doing, and I’m like, they aren’t supposed to be doing all of that if they’re not called to it. Should they be discipling? Yes. Should there be pre-conversion and post-conversion discipleship? Yes. Should there be worship gatherings? Yes. Should there be outreach? Yes. Should there be service? Yes. But there are specific needs in the world that won’t be met through the institutional church, and I’m telling you, they aren’t supposed to be. You may be wondering, „Darius, well, who’s supposed to meet them?“ You. That’s your ministry. You know what we call that in Bible U? We call it Gap Ministry. There are gaps that exist, meaning there are needs in the world that won’t always be met through the programming of the institutional church. However, those needs can be met—listen to me—through the ministry that comes from people in the body of Christ who are willing to fill those gaps.

As a matter of fact, when Paul was writing to believers in Ephesus in Ephesians 4:11, he says this: „And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.“ In Paul’s mind, it’s the saints—the people—who should be doing ministry. You guys have been hearing me say this forever: is ministry done within the context of local church programming? Sure. Is that the only place it’s supposed to be done? Absolutely not. No, sir, no ma’am. There are gaps that exist in the world, and sometimes people attempt to superimpose their ministry assignments on the institutions of a local church. For example, there are people who are Christians suffering from addictions. So, there’s substance abuse, and they’re dealing with addictions. Now, do churches have programs like Celebrate Recovery and things of that nature? Yes. Is the institution of a church equipped to deal with, generally speaking, all the comprehensive realities that people face? Yes, with exceptions, of course, but generally speaking, the institution of a church is not equipped to handle all the realities that people deal with.