FOUNDATION OF CHURCH PLANTING. Church is the gathering a gathering of Christians in one body, one Spirit, one hope of calling, having One Lord, in one faith, with one baptism, serving one God and Father of all; Who is above all. Ephesians 4:4-6. In other words, the gathering of people who have common interests of worshiping God and rightly dividing the word of God for spiritual nourishment that is necessary for spiritual growth is called a Church. 2 timothy 2:15 Therefore, a church could also be defined as gathering of sinners that have obtained mercy from God; Those that have been chosen from the multitude and called out of darkness into Gods marvelous light to show forth His praises . 1 peter 2:9-10. “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart ,47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved”. _ Acts 2:46-47 It is Christians that gathered for the purpose of God that are called church and not the bricks, building, woods or walls, as the case my be. Buildings are erected for various purposes. There are commercial buildings, Residential buildings and warehouses. But the moment a group of Christian acquire any of those buildings for the purpose of worshiping God, gathering for Prayers or sharing of the word of God, the building is automatically referred to as a church. Therefore the building is technically not a church, but the Christians in the building that make the building a church. “Now the company of believers was of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything which he possessed was [exclusively] his own, but everything they had was in common and for the use of all” _Acts 4:32. Foundation Chritian Life Page 11. The purpose of the gathering of believers was seen in the lives of the first believers in the book of the acts of the apostles. They shared the word of God daily and also shared everything and anything to make sure no one was with a need amongst them. They were in one spirit ,one mind and one Love. In other words,they demonstrated the life of the kingdom of heaven on earth. They gathered together basically for the purpose of the kingdom of God and not for any gains and not according to tradition of man. They all sought for and got the Holy-spirit and were all passionate about Christ and His teachings,Growing daily and living to please God. “Then those who gladly received his word were baptised; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 .And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.44.Now all who believed were together, and had all things In common, 45.and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them Among all, as anyone had need. 46.So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,47.praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. _ Acts 2:41-47. The Foundation of the Apostles for Church planting was that, The Apostles or Evangelists would preach in any new city and form a meeting place for those who believed and gave thier lives to Jesus for regular studies of the word of God. The Apostle would then chose someone prayerfully to lead, teach or Pastor those who were converted to Christ. The Apostles and desciples preached repentance, danger of hell fire and taught daily how to become holy, righteous and make heaven. The Apostle called sin wickedness and unrighteousness. This is no longer the case in our own time . People now call sin mistakes. They make sinners enjoy living in sin. The new generation preachers teach on how to inherit the earth. They advertise thier churches and design thier own method of bringing people to patronise them. They do programmes upon programmes as if though they love to safe sinners, but they do not organise programmes for sinners to repent to Jesus, but to increase the size of thier congregation in other to make more money. Most of them pay fortune to be on TV; Not because of sinners, but to gain porpularity, so that people may know that thier ministries also excist and that they may increase thier membership strenght. 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? 1 corinthians 3:3-4. Pastors, Evangelists and majority of the modern day Apostles dont care if people go to hell or not; All they want is fame, money and crowd. My people have now turned Church planting to Business Planting. It is more of opening Business branch offices now. It is no longer passion for souls, but passion for customers and congregation, and ofcourse money making venture. It more of empire building for many General overseers than kingdom building.If we are truely building kingdom and not business empire, there should be unity amongst all churches. There should not be denominational controvercies and segregation amongst us. I beeseach you therefore brethren, to please emulate the Apostles foundation, as they obtained from The Lord Jesus. We do not need to shift away from Christs foundation. That is the only reason why He died. He died for the lost souls. He did not die for us to enrich ourselves with His name and Glory. He that has hears, let Him hear what the Spirit says to the Church. Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 1 corinthians 1:10-13.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 01:32:49 +0000
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