What is the role of edification in the Church's mission?

Edification is a fundamental aspect of the Church's two-fold mission, which includes evangelism and edification. According to Matthew 28:19-20, the Church is commissioned to win people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through evangelism, and then bring those people to spiritual maturity through edification. This process involves imparting the Word of God and empowering believers for service. The local church serves as the training ground for spiritual advance, where believers can grow in their understanding and application of God's Word. Without involvement in a local church, no believer can achieve the spiritual greatness for which they were designed by God. Every believer is given unique spiritual gifts at salvation to accomplish some area of service for the edification of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:7, 11-16). These gifts are sovereignly bestowed and cannot be lost, but believers must exercise them in love, recognizing that their freedom in Christ can never be taken from them, yet it can be forfeited. The ultimate goal of edification is to build up the Body of Christ, that it may become a display piece of God's surpassing riches of grace (Ephesians 2:4-7).