What should be the PRIMARY emphasis of Christianity?

The primary emphasis on Christianity is Jesus Christ. Follow Him and morality will follow.

 

I say Worship.. When it is done, everything else falls in line.

 

I'd have to go with Jesus' answer - to love God with all you have and to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. If you can do that, everything else falls into place.

 

As if they should be separated.

 

I voted for Gospel with a modification: The Gospel must be preached and practiced.

Ask the apostle Paul if I'm correct.

 

Agreed. In the Cross is salvation, and in it we learn discipleship.

 

That would be Christianity without the Cross.

 

Agreed. Instead of "the godly shall suffer persecution," you can have "your best life now." :laugh:

 

I break the responsibility of the NT Church into two different parts Number1 is THE PURPOSE, not taken from THE PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH but from scripture To worshp GOD and Minister to the Body(Acts 2), and Number 2 The Mission, To preach the Gospel as told to do in Matt 28. It is extremely important that the Mission is driven by the Purdose. If this is done then the Church will succeed. Otherwise it is merely Spiritual Exercise

 

Mt. 28:19,20
Acts 1:8

 

I believe Jesus stated the purpose of the church in the great commission:

to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

He didn't say the purpose of the church was to worship or to build up the body. We can do that til the cows come home and never get around to evangelizing the lost. The purpose of the church is not to contemplate our own navels (am I worshipping? How connected am I feeling? Are my needs met?)

He said it was to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES.

 

I think for me that the primary purpose of the church is to the glory of God.

(Eph 3:21) to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

So in that sense the primary purpose of the church is to glorify God. In that respect this actually transcends worship. The church give glory to God due to the grace bestowed upon the church through Jesus Christ. Thus in that sense, God uses the church to give glory to himself.

 

Well put. :thumbs:

 

So the greast commandment and the great commission are no longer part of Scripture?

 

I think you can make a case for differentiating between our eternal purpose and our purpose right now.

We are to glorify God. That is great and we should. We should praise him and worship him and all that.

BUT – Our opportunity to share the gospel with the lost is a fleeting thing that will be over in an instant.

We have all eternity to gather around God’s throne and sing praise and worship music. We only have a short time to share his saving gospel with those lost dying souls all around us.

The primary responsibility of the church has to be evangelism.