Understanding the PURPOSE of the Church vs. the ROLE of the Church. Lets start here...with a troubling present-day focus of the Church: The problem with the modern Churchs incessant focus on ATTENDANCE? 1. Gods focus is HOLINESS. 2. Jesus never witnessed by simply inviting someone to the Temple. 3. At no time in Scripture did a SHEPHERD open the gates of the PASTURE and simply INVITE other animals in...doing so under the guise of We can get them SAVED if we can get them HERE. The Shepherd is to PROTECT the FLOCK...and the numerical growth ONLY came by adding new SHEEP. 4. The CHURCH in the original Greek is believers...and it is NOT made up of ATTENDERS. 5. I can not truly INVITE someone to be a part of the CHURCH any more than I can simply INVITE someone to the RAPTURE. Both are exclusively for BELIEVERS. 6. You can get people Churched without getting them SAVED. 7. Big crowds a sign of God is blessing!? The Bible says MANY (BIG CROWDS) will follow the WIDE PATH that leads to DESTRUCTION...while FEW will take the NARROW ROAD which leads to ETERNAL LIFE with Jesus. 8. TRAINING and TEACHING are established as the PURPOSE of the Church...as Ephesians notes that the purpose is to UNIFY believers in faith and doctrine. 9. GROWTH in TRUTH is the primary purpose of the Church...as WORSHIP flows out of our recognition of TRUTH: Jesus Christ. (Again...check Ephesians.) 10. We ASSEMBLE to grow SPIRITUALLY: we GO to WITNESS. Somehow...the Church lost TRUTH while seeking NUMBERS. The Church was meant to GROW as people were first SAVED and then added to the Church daily. Never did the Bible say invite OTHER ANIMALS (the UNSAVED) into the SHEEP FOLD...and pray that this MINGLING will allow the UNSAVED to one day become SHEEP. In reality...modern Church growth exists for one reason: Christians stopped GOING out to WITNESS as we readily see in Scripture. Therefore...to APPEAR to be WITNESSING, someone decided GETTING PEOPLE TO ATTEND church would give the APPEARANCE of WITNESSING. Church GROWTH focuses on getting people into PEWS...while EVANGELISM focuses on getting people into HEAVEN. The key lies in understanding these two distinctions: The PURPOSE of the Church is to bring BELIEVERS into UNITY of the FAITH and in DOCTRINE, bringing MATURITY to the Body... ...while the ROLE of the Church is to be WITNESSES to the world, TESTIFYING of the SAVING GRACE and TRANSFORMING POWER of Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This goes against most tactics being used in the Church today...as SPIRITUAL GROWTH has taken a back seat to ATTENDANCE. Remember: If the ATTENDANCE of your CHURCH increases...yet the POPULATION of Heaven remains unchanged...then your church is nothing more than a comfortable waiting room to Hell. Sadly...many pastors find every excuse imaginable to justify their 3-ring circus...as the crowds come to enjoy the show. But...the Biggest Show on Earth will never be the ticket to Heaven! Keep the PURPOSE and ROLE of the Church in the forefront...and in their proper perspective. Then...and ONLY then...will the Church become the Bride of Christ...instead of the worlds harlot!
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 01:18:16 +0000
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