When the church goes fishing

11 Dec, 2016 - 00:12 0 Views
When the church goes fishing Members of the African Revival Ministries pray during Easter celebrations at City Sports Centre in Harare yesterday.-(Picture by Tawanda Mudimu)

The Sunday Mail

Dr David Broom —
There is debate on the validity of “seeker friendly” churches. Many critics believe it to be all about getting the numbers to boost the morale of the church and, in many cases, the pastor.

However, some seeker friendly churches accomplish much to advance the Kingdom. Larger churches often have larger budgets and when managed with integrity, this allows these churches to do outreach and community projects that smaller churches only wish they could do.

Adding multimedia presentations of the gospel, coffee shops and other amenities draws some people that would otherwise never come to a church. If you are fishing, you change your bait depending on the fish you want to catch. Some churches have been able to draw people this way.

The danger with using “bait” is that of watering down the gospel so as to attract people. Jesus did not change His message even though it was offensive to some (Matt. 13:57 &26:31, Mark 4:17& 6:3).

Should we not do the same?
While arguing as a leadership team on how we could become more “seeker friendly”, a wise man offered this piece of advice. “I think church should be very seeker friendly right up until the first song starts!”

My concern is that it seems like our focus as the church is to get people to come to church in the hope that when they do, something will rub off, and they will fall in love with God.

This is not a bad strategy until it becomes our main drive, for our primary purpose should be to get people to fall in love with Jesus and not the church. Too many people love their church and tolerate the God part. In church, people should be inspired to fall in love with Jesus and tolerate the church part.

Our Christian walk is a seven- day-a-week relationship with God. Our gathering on Sunday has, however, a different purpose. Jesus said He would build His church (Matt. 16:18). It is interesting to note the term that Jesus used. Jesus used the Greek word Ecclesia. The word was well understood by those living under Roman rule, and it was political in origin, not religious.

Bible translators translated it to”church”. Jesus could have said He would build His temple (He was accused of saying similar things before, Matt 27:40 ). He could have said He would establish His own sect of religion, but He did not. He said He would build His own Ecclesia!

The definition of this word, according to Strong’s Concordance, is “a meeting place from whence a motion or action proceeds”. So our Sunday morning meetings were designed by The Author to be when citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven gather to discuss how they should act in order to make His Kingdom come on earth!

Yet we have turned our gatherings into a time of outreach to win the lost in an effort to satisfy our own egos as we lead growing churches. Our job, however, is to lift Jesus higher so that He draws men to Himself. When we focus on training His people to bring His will and His kingdom to earth by combating the works of darkness, we exalt Him and His cause.

When we try to do Jesus’ job, drawing people, we are doing the wrong job. Because He is the embodiment of humility, He is not going to exalt himself. We must exalt Jesus so that He can draw men to Himself. The end result of us trying to do His job is that we have large gatherings of people and very little Jesus.

Jesus’ plan is simple – lift Him higher, and He will draw men to Himself (John 12:32), causing His church to be built. We, as leaders, are shepherds (Jer. 23:4, Ez. 34:2). There is an interesting fact to note here – shepherds do not give birth to sheep. Sheep give birth to sheep. Therefore, it is the job of each believer to reproduce, not the church.

If we gather as theecclesia and discuss and train people to show others the amazing love of our Father, we will lead others to Christ. Those who then convert will want to become citizens of our ecclesia, desiring to discuss the affairs of the kingdom and seeking to participate in making Jesus’ Kingdom come, and His will be done on earth.

As Christ’s followers, let us ask ourselves if our main focus is to draw people or to exalt Jesus. I dare say that if we do our part, He will be faithful to do His and perhaps yet, we can make His Kingdom come on earth!
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