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This is going to be an article that asks us to examine ourselves, our purpose, our vision, and our relevance. Are we, in actuality, carrying on the work of Christ or are we merely fooling ourselves? This is a question that can be asked of individuals, individual church bodies, and the church as a whole. Can we look in the mirror and be honest with what we honestly see? While tough to do, dare we do it?
Do we act with purpose? To be sure, Jesus Christ not only had a tremendous purpose, he had tremendous purpose, period. There's a difference. He acted with purpose, spoke with purpose, and led with purpose. He not only attracted followers via his miracle working prowess, he also attracted followers because, unlike the Pharisees whose main purpose seemed to be policing their hundreds of self-imposed religious rules, he acted with a much larger purpose and vision. ("Never man spake like this man" John 7:46) He had a "big-picture" mentality. He understood what he was doing here. He saw his purpose and place in the overall plan of God. Jesus had a job to do and wasted no time getting to it. Even at 12 years of age, he made it known it was imperative that he be about his "Father's business" (Luke 2:49). As a matter of fact, this was his first recorded discourse. Once he did begin his ministry, he acted swiftly and clearly. He had a long way to go and a short time to get there. His life did not consist of wasted time, wasted words, or wasted motion. He knew where he was going. It showed and it was contagious.
Does your church have a stated purpose and, if they do, do they have a semblance of moving into that purpose? I've heard purposes stated in the past but five, ten, or twenty years later, no change. We often never really seem to put one foot in front of the other heading in a specific direction. Our thrust seems to be holding the fort. Are we here to hold the fort or charge the gates of hell? Which did Christ do?
What about vision? Having vision leads to movement in the direction of that vision. Do we have a sense of direction or are we running in circles? Or, worse, stagnant? Is your church going anywhere in particular? I mean, besides Heaven? (Oh, I know our goal is go to Heaven but this should not be. Heaven is our home, not our goal. Our goal should be to be about our "Father's business". If we move in no clear direction, the vision may be missing or unclear. Some pastors I know have vision but can't move their lethargic congregation. We're too used to sitting and we like it that way. It's comfortable. (That's why we shouldn't let new converts start out by sitting in a pew. After a short period of time, they think that's normal. Unfortunately, our main expectation of new converts is just that, sit in the pew every time the church doors are open. If they do that, we're generally pretty pleased.)
Many pastors' hands are tied by a stubborn board. ("We've never done it that way before!" or "What we're doing was good enough for my grandpa so it's good enough for us!") Pastors have a nearly impossible task. Why would they ever take the job? It can't be the money. It can't be the ease. No pastor in our area is getting rich by being a pastor and, Lord knows, no pastor took the job because it was easy. Maybe pastors take the job because, by being pastor, everybody loves them (funny). Some pastors have given up trying. We rightfully look to our leaders to provide direction and vision. Sometimes they don't. But when they do, we have to get off our pews and put it into action!
Are we so busy trying to keep sheep in the fold that we have very little time to worry about things like purpose and direction? If so, we should ask ourselves why sheep want out of the fold? We can either chase them down and bring them back (which is entirely scriptural) or we can examine ourselves, find out why they're leaving, and plug that hole. A lack of purpose, vision, and direction will cause many a sheep to become disenchanted. Their minds will wander (and wonder, too). Start acting with great purpose and the sheep will want to follow, having a strong sense of mission. Plugging the hole will allow us to move on to other things and free us to find our higher purpose.
Are we relevant in today's society? One way to judge whether or not you are relevant is to ask yourself if the hurting and confused people of the world are coming to you for help and answers. If not, guess what. Does your church have specifically established ministries to effectively deal with serious issues? Do they have a ministry for those struggling with homosexuality or abortion or pornography or alcohol or anger or depression? Do they train their members to know how to deal with cultists (besides slamming the door in their face, that is) or occultists or atheists or agnostics or backsliders? If not, what do we do when we run up against it in our family or among our friends? Look the other way?
Does your church take seriously the need to teach it's members apologetics - what to believe, reasons to believe, and how to defend our reasons for believing? No? Why is there little interest in knowing, proving, and defending our faith? Why so little interest in apologetics? Is it not important? Does your church have classes on the cults? No? Yet, 75% of those in cults come from a Christian background in Christian churches. How in the world did they end up in a cult? Were they never taught the difference between cult teaching and Christian teaching? Not only do sheep leave the fold, when they do, they become helpless sheep among ravenous wolves. (1 Peter 5:8)
We try to convince the world that they are missing something by not becoming one of us. We must take a serious look at just what we're offering them. We think we're offering them Jesus, someone with purpose, vision, relevance, direction, and big-picture mentality. But, if we don't have these things ourselves, what are we truly offering them? Would you join a group that said, "Look, we have no stated purpose, we can't really explain what we believe, we aren't really up on the issues of the day, we aren't clear on where we're going, and, if you have a problem, we will not be much help. All we ask is that you attend most (or, sometimes, all) of our meetings and give us some of your money." Would you be excited about becoming a part of this? Is this what the world is hearing?
The state of the world is in critical condition? How's the state of the church? In the book of Revelation, John was instructed to write a letter to seven churches in Asia Minor. If he wrote a letter to us today, what would it say to us, individually or corporately? A sobering thought. A church doing Jesus' work will have tremendous impact in this world. Are we truly impacting the world?
Are we performing Luke 4:18 or Luke 19:10 or Acts 10:38 or 1 John 3:8 or John 18:37? That's not a fun question to ponder (as I've been told). But, we must ponder it. If we aren't attracting hurting people, if we aren't healing the brokenhearted, if we aren't delivering the captives, if we aren't giving sight to the blind, if we aren't liberating the bruised, if we aren't seeking and saving that which was lost, if we aren't going about doing good and healing all that are oppressed of the devil, if we aren't destroying the works of our enemy, if we aren't bearing witness to truth, then are we carrying on the work of Christ?
As we discussed in our article, "Helping the Hard Case", the Bible clearly teaches that we are to carry on his work and carry it on in the way that he did. How do we compare to the anointed Jesus?
Isn't that our benchmark?
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