Building a Church is hard! Ask any church planter what their favorite Scriptures are and I bet you Matthew 16:18, when Christ says of Himself “I will build my church” is in the top 5! It is a comforting thought when you are working with all your strength, and you’re not sure you’re doing everything right, to read Matthew 16:18 and know that in the end, Christ (not us) ultimately builds His Church!
September 13th is the National Back to Church Sunday as we “ReThink” Church. I believe it’s good for us to “ReThink” Church. I know I shudder when I think of some of the mistakes I’ve made as a young pastor. So I’m right there saying, “Yeah! Let’s re-think what we do, how we do it and why we do this thing we call “Church.”
However, I don’t want to ReThink church just from a cultural perspective (in asking, what do people want?) I’d rather ReThink church from a Biblical perspective, (asking, what does God want?” Culture will change…Scripture won’t (1 Peter 1:25). I ponder a great deal on the changes the Church needs to make and usually my thoughts go back to a critical time for both our nation and the Church…The Great Awakening.
Just as we use kindling for a fire, God used Jonathan Edwards to spark the flames of the Great Awakening, which was a great outpouring upon this nation. The spiritual climate was cold in those days, just as it is in ours. For them, it was Deism that was the challenge, for us, our challenges are apathy, an abundance of sin among God’s people and a lack of solid doctrine leading to a high view of God.
The Church needed a new direction. She needed to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit and be led to repentance. So much repentance took place in those days that entire cities were changed. Edwards wrote that cities experienced a powerful move of God among the American colonies from Northampton, Massachusetts (where he was a pastor) to Northern Georgia! Even as I write this, my heart cries, “Do it again Lord! Sweep our nation. Bring repentance to Your Church and to the lost! Amen!”
Jonathan Edwards was born October 5, 1703. He had a brilliant mind. He entered Yale University at the age of 13. He went on to be the Associate Pastor under his grandfather and soon became the senior pastor where he would remain for 23 years. The last 7 years of his life he worked as a missionary to the Indians. He would die at a young age of 54 from a smallpox inoculation just months after he became the President of the College of New Jersey, later named, Princeton University.
What Edwards is really known for was his deep theological books, which are still widely read today. His books like Religious Affections, Freedom of the Will, Charity and its Fruits and probably the most notable, The Life of David Brainerd. Edwards took time to write this book after David Brainerd stayed at his home. He passed away of Tuberculosis in 1747. Brainerd loved Edward’s daughter, Jerusha, and she died just months after Brainerd of the same disease after trying to nurse him back to health.
The book, The Life of David Brainerd, mainly taken from Brainerd’s diary, has impacted 200 years of missionaries. Men like Henry Martyn, Robert Morrison, Francis Asbury, Robert Murray McCheney, William Carey, David Livingston, Andrew Murray and Jim Elliot have all expressed the deep impact Edwards and Brainerd have had on their lives.
“Sinners in the Hands of an angry God” was the sermon that shook America! Most people think of Edwards as a loud, boisterous preacher. They picture him yelling and screaming on top of pews. That wasn’t Jonathan Edwards at all. As matter of fact, it was quite opposite. He had a very monotone voice. Because he had poor eyesight, he would hold a lantern in one hand, and use the other hand to read his sermon (yes, read his manuscript sermon!). The power was not in his delivery, but in the prayer with which he saturated his sermons!
So, what does all of this have to do with National Back to Church Sunday? Well, I think the Church needs a new direction and I can’t think of a better direction that looking to the past and how God moved so mightily among His people. As we “ReThink” some things about Church, keep in mind Hebrews 13:7, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.”
Let’s ReThink our Programs.
“Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:11
Look at any growing church and you will see a dynamic kid’s church, a thriving student ministry, a strong worship department, effective outreach and a host of other programs. They are needed, and I think necessary to maintaining a healthy church.
However, there is a danger to building a church on programs. Allow me to prove my point, while keeping in mind that all these programs are important and valued to the life of my own congregation. I simply want to bring balance as we “ReThink” church!
Jeremiah 2:13 says, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold not water.” That’s not written to pagan, heathen lost people! This is written to God’s people and I think the Church needs to revisit this...“my people” have committed evil by forsaking the Lord! This tells me that it’s possible to build a church and leave God out of it! Let’s ReThink this and see if we are guilty of “relying” on our programs more than the power of the Holy Spirit! “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalms 127:1
Let’s ReThink our Priorities
Budgets are important to churches. More than anything, a budget shows the priorities of a congregation. The money will go to whatever matters to that Church. I want to encourage you to not let global and local missions be under-budgeted.
This coming year, pray about raising the budgets for spreading the gospel. The measure of our churches should not be the “seating” capacity but rather its “sending” capacity!
Read the Apostle Paul’s praise to the Thessalonian congregation for their labor in missions, “so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere…” 1 Thessalonians 1:7-8
I love those verses! The phrase “Sounded forth” literally means “blowing trumpets”! They were an example to churches in their day and certainly they are an example to us in the 21st century!
Let’s ReThink our Preaching
The Bible teaches that it is possible for us to empty the cross of its power. “…and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:17-18
Hold to the beautiful truths of sound doctrine. Follow Paul’s instructions in Titus 1:9 and Titus 2:1. Let us not taint something as sacred as preaching with something so secular as a TV series, sitcoms or movies. We can preach a sermon series that we call “relevant” and it can “empty the cross of its power.” Let’s ReThink Church!
Let’s Rethink our Purpose
I try to remind the leaders in my church of 1 Peter 4:11 quite often. It says, “…whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
Why does the Church exists? To glorify God in all things! Keep that the driving force of your congregation. Why do we do benevolence ministry? To glorify God! Why do we sing songs with a choir or band? To glorify God! Why do we do missions? To glorify God! Why do we preach? Ultimately to glorify God through the converting and edifying of souls! Do all things to the glory of God!
What if we’re doing Church wrong?
Like any church age, we’re not perfect. If Christ doesn’t return soon, history will one day judge us as we judge past generations in their faithfulness and purity as a church. As I often feel the weightiness of leading a Church, and the pressures of being relevant to our culture yet faithful to the Gospel and the Holy Spirit, I am comforted by Jude 1:24, “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.”
So I encourage all of you who love the Church and are doing your best to make her pleasing to the Lord! Be careful that you’re Biblical and Christ-centered, but also, be encouraged that Christ will build His Church (Matthew 16:18), and He will sustain you till the end (1 Corinthians 1:8) and He will equip you for all that you need. “Now may the God of peace…the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20-21.
To learn more about Preaching Christ Church, visit, www.preachingchristchurch.com
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