I’m a smiling fella already and usually walk around with a goofy grin on my face on any given day. But there are a few things that make this preacher smile even bigger and more often. Let me share… 

  1. When members are enthusiastically telling the gospel to lost souls and are evangelistically minded. 
  2. When shepherds are serious about leading and moving forward as a growing congregation. 
  3. When ministers are dedicated to sound doctrine and working together to fulfill their ministry in the Kingdom.
  4. When deacons are eagerly and humbly serving in their areas of ministry and looking for ways to build up the church through edification. 
  5. When teachers are studious and take the responsibility of teaching God’s Word to students who are eager to learn. 
  6. When husbands and wives are diligently working to create godly homes as they raise children who love the Lord and want to serve Him. 
  7. When Christians assemble together in love and harmony in worship and cooperation to build up the body of Christ. 

These things certainly make this preacher smile, and I can’t help but think about what Paul says in Ephesians 4:11- 16. 

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

I love you church… make me smile!

 

~ Alex