How Does God Bring About Personal Transformation in the Local Church? (Part 2)

The Body of Jesus Christ exists to bring the Good News of God’s love to everyone who resides within our local community! As
members of that body, we are to individually and corporately experience God’s transforming power so that we can work together to
accomplish the will and heart of Jesus Himself.

TRANSFORMATION ON A CHURCH-WIDE SCALE

Since transformation is the renewing of the mind to prove the will of God, then bringing transformation to a local church requires the
local church to become the body of Christ. In an age of individuality (read: self-centeredness), the church runs counter to our culture.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you
may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)

Paul shows us that personal transformation is the stuff of local church transformation. Notice the progression that must happen if a
local church is to experience and prove the will of God for their community.

  • Individual members take responsibility to be transformed. No one can make the decisions necessary to follow Christ except
    you. And when you choose to walk with God, when you allow Jesus the Lordship of leadership in your life, God changes your
    heart! Day-by-day, choice by choice, we are transformed into the image of Jesus.

  • Each member who is transformed creates a greater potential for the health to the entire body. There is little doubt that the
    church in the USA is sick. Diminishing attendance, few conversions and sparse adult baptisms all show the real condition of
    the church. However, there is a cure to this epidemic of spiritual death. Step by step, person by person the health of the local
    church grows as more and more individuals walk with God and experience the personal changes He brings.

  • As the numbers of individual transformed members increases, greater health and vitality come to the church. Your
    contribution to your local church can mean all the difference in your community. You see, as you change by being in God’s
    presence, you have something that is contagious. Sharing God’s work in your life with others – maybe by just gathering them
    together each week and allowing God to work in your midst can spread this transforming love of God. As you branch out and
    reach even more, the health of your church grows – one by one God transforms more and more of His body, your local church.
    With each metamorphosis, the total health of the local church increases greatly.

  • When the leadership, the influencers and the majority of members are spiritually transformed, the church is able to …

  1. Prove the will of God for their faith community. Remember the end of transformation is to “prove what is that good and
    acceptable and perfect will of God.” This is the solution to the sickness that pervades American churches. When we boil down
    all the information on church demise, we must come to the logical conclusion that His church has stepped away from the will
    of God. When we regain God’s direction and guidance (natural results of walking in His presence and being transformed) as
    a local church, life and health, growth and vitality come as well.
  2. Execute the will of God in their local community. Once God begins to work in the lives of a majority of His people, they band
    together to fulfill His heart and will. God’s greatest desire is to draw His lost children back to Himself. When we walk with Him,
    His passion becomes our passion once again. Like scales falling from our eyes, the sleep of our selfishness clears into the
    light of God’s love for humanity. People we never even gave a second thought to now take center stage on our heart. As we
    follow the inclinations of God’s heart, we seek out ways to reach those we rub shoulders with every day. Such redemptive
    relationships have at their core the desire to see these people with Christ, knowing the joy we have in Him.
  3. Accomplish the will of God within their whole community. As our local church grows healthy and our local community begins to
    respond to the Good News of Jesus’ love, God’s heart rejoices. As long as we, as a local church, continue to stay close and
    allow God to transform our heart God’s will continues to flow.

Transformation on a body-wide scale like this is not only possible, it is the norm for the spiritually minded church. As you seek God’s
face and spread God’s grace the local church grows and glorifies God in the process!

© 2007 by Dr. Matthew Lee Smith. All rights reserved.
Transformation
First Baptist Church