Of course, the ultimate goal of all ministry in a local church is “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. However, there are five basic categories into which all of what we may call the “antepenultimate and penultimate ends” can be ordered. They are as follows:

The longer I have been in ministry, the more I have found the ancient Latin proverb to be true: Repetitio mater studiorum est (i.e. repetition is the mother of all learning). Or, as Samuel Johnson, so helpfully noted: “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” This is no less true for a local church that is collectively seeking to fulfill the Great Commission, as it is for individual believers who are personally seeking to live out the Christian life in light of the truth of God’s word. While it may seem unnecessarily redundant to revisit basic biblical categories with church members, there are a number of categories–given to us by Jesus in the Great Commission and the Apostles in the New Testament epistles–into which biblically defined end goals of ministry in the local church may be ordered. While these ends can be considered basic or foundational to the life of a local church, a friend of mine recently reminded me of the need that ministers have to constantly hold them up before the eyes of the entire congregation.

In order to better lead the congregation forward in faithfully carrying out the Great Commission, the elders at New Covenant Presbyterian Church hold an informational meeting with the congregation at the beginning of each new year. At this meeting, we seek to summarize where we’ve been as a church over the course of a year (i.e. to give consideration to the goals met, growth perceived, challenges faced and deficiencies experienced), as well as where we wish to be at the end of the new year. One of the benefits of having a meeting like this is that it helps the leadership more clearly articulate the direction of the church in a highly focused and purposeful manner. Additionally, it gives the leadership an opportunity to pinpoint areas in the life of the church where growth is needed. However, the potential danger of leaving members confused as to the means goals and the end goals of all ministry in the life of a local church is one of the challenges that we face as we prepare for this meeting. As we wish to avoid erring in this way, the leadership at New Covenant is seeking to reestablish, in the minds of the congregants, the broad categories of biblical ministry goals. In doing so, we are hoping to encourage both the leadership and the membership of the church to keep the means and the ends of ministry in the local church clearly distinguished.

Of course, the ultimate goal of all ministry in a local church is “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. However, there are five basic categories into which all of what we may call the “antepenultimate and penultimate ends” can be ordered. They are as follows:

• Worship. In a very real sense, gathered Lord’s Day worship is the most important of all that to which God calls the church to enter in on in this life and in the life to come.

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