Jesus asked Apostle Peter three times if Peter loved Him, before He entrusted Peter with His Church, His sheep for whom He died.
Church leaders to whom Jesus entrusted His sheep are called to equip, build up, and nurture those entrusted under their care, so that they will no longer be infants, but become spiritually mature, ready to step up to the tasks that God prepared in advance for them to do, able to make disciples at the domains in the world that the Lord ordained (Ephesians 2:10, Matthew 28:19).
Some churches cry out that their biggest church crisis is the shortage of church volunteers. Yes, that is understandably man's concern. But Jesus' Church concern is the shortage of disciples who love Him with their hearts, not by empty words, but by obedient living of putting Him first, going all in.
Turning Jesus' sheep into utilities for organized church as church volunteers without building them up in Christ is one of the biggest spiritual negligence of today's western churches.
What business is your church in? Is it in alignment with Jesus' business?
[Extracted from the book, "Being Christian 2.0. See QR code below.]
It is easy to tell churches which are not in the business that Jesus is in. Here are a few salient features:
Church leaders have not imparted their walk in the Spirit to their followers, showing them how to establish a genuine personal relationship with Jesus as Lord, with the Spirit as the Guide, with the Father as their source of love, building a lifestyle of living on the Word and praying in the Spirit, "follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).
Church leaders have not told the sheep entrusted that God has a calling upon their lives for which one day they have to give an account. Citing church volunteering resumes just will not cut it.
Church leaders are more like CEOs and executives than spiritual parents. They have not nurtured the sheep entrusted to discover God's specific calls upon their lives, such that Jesus' sheep are able to live purposefully in bold faith, in accordance with God's original intents of creating them for such a time as this.
Church volunteers and members are by large perpetual spiritual infants, needing spoon feeding, drinking milk, incapacitated to make disciples.
They build things for the organized church (the orange church from the table), at the expense of building people using the resources of organized church (the blue church from the table).
Church leaders spend no time to discuss about the spiritual well-being of their congregation, but only spend time to talk about businesses related to the orange church of the table above.
Have you ever wondered why:
Jesus never left behind any prescriptive instructions to build organized churches, like a church constitution?
Jesus did not pick individuals who were more executive savvy as disciples to establish a church organization that can last long enough until He comes back?
Jesus only talked about the Kingdom of God in the last forty days on earth, instead of how to organize churches until He comes back?
The answer is simple. Jesus did not come to build organized churches, the orange church from the table. He came to build His people to establish His kingdom on earth (aka “KOE”), the blue church from the table:
By offering His disciples lives to the fullest in Him (John 10:10),
Such that the world can see His glory through the Body of Christ, i.e. His disciples,
Then through His Body, as Christ's physical presence on earth, the lost maybe drawn to Him and may have life in Him (John 20:31),
And His Father glorified.
Is your church in Christ's kingdom business? Or is it in the business of earthly enterprises?
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