STONE HAUS INSTRUCTION 6.3. NOVEMBER 25, 2025. Faith Culture.

COMMUNITY BUILDING. Pages: 3.

INDEX:

  1. Member Involvement in Community – Overall Health and Functioning
  2. Effective Member Contributions – Meeting Practical Needs

Member Involvement in Community

Overall Health and Functioning

The Holy Spirit, speaks through the epistle of the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth, causing us to know that every member of the body of Christ has a role to play, and that each one is equally important for ministry of the gospel to function effectively.

The Holy Spirit has spoken in 1 Corinthians 12:13-14 saying, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.” Again the Holy Spirit says in verses 18-20, “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke the words recorded in John 15:16-17 where He stated, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.” So we see that each member chosen in Christ has been appointed by the Lord Himself to “go and bear fruit,” and that He intends for the fruit to remain. Which means the Lord intends to develop effective ministry as all members do their part in faithful service to our Heavenly Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

By issuing the command, that we must bear the effective and lasting fruit of the Spirit, our Lord draws out that which God desires from all the members of His body – love one for another. Each member’s outpouring of love must accord to the gifts with which the Holy Spirit endows the individual. The labor of love must also be freely discharged by the member, so that every “good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary” (Philemon 1:14). “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

We maintain what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:17, that the “Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Also as he wrote in Romans 12:3-9, “God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy.”

We instruct the saints to manifest the intention of the Holy Spirit’s words, “let us” and “let.” With the liberty given by God to each member in the body of Christ, “let love be.” For as the Apostle Paul wrote is Romans 8:12, “we have an obligation.” Our God-given obligation is to sow to the Spirit, knowing that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and also knowing that each member “will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:8-10).

Effective Member Contributions

Meeting Practical Needs

The Holy Spirit has made it clear that “whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need” (1 John 3:17), is “to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs” (Titus 3:14). Members of the body of Christ are directed by the Lord to joyfully render contributions, which serve as their personal testimony. The testimony is that they have welcomed the truth of “the word of God, which also effectively works” in them as true believers (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Effective contributions are made in the Name and Spirit of Jesus Christ. That which we ask for in His Name, the Father does for us to His glory. That which we receive from God to contribute, we also release to the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, who is present in the individual member. The presence of the Holy Spirit is evident through the good works in the forms of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”(Galatians 5:22-23) during the discharge of the ministry contributions.

We maintain that it is God “who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food” (2 Corinthians 9:10). We call forth “His indescribable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15), which is the exceeding grace of God through the contributions of each believer in the gospel. Abounding thanks be to God for the administration of this service, which is discharged by each member of the body of Christ!

Rev. Oscar Rivera, StoneHaus Mission

General Overseer, Gentry, Arkansas, USA