Purpose
Thanks to everyone for writing about and thinking about the purposes of the church. Of course, it's a loaded question and it's tough to sum up what you may think in a reply. People have written books about the issue. It reminds me of a class I was in last week. The teacher led with the question, "What is the Bible for?" Ummmm...how much time do you have?The purpose statement for Saddleback Church goes like this:
"To bring people to Jesus and membership in his family, develop them to Christlike maturity, and equip them for their ministry in the church and life mission in the world, in order to magnify God's name."
I'm not much of one for mission statements, but I have to admit: that's not bad.
I like how clearly defined that purpose is. I like the progession of it too, that we shouldn't expect maturity from babes in Christ. We need to allow people to grow into their ministries over time.
Barclay says that a man is converted three times. He is converted to Christ. Then he is converted to the church. Then he is converted to the world. Too often, we expect people to jump into ministries or mission work when they are still learning who Jesus is. Is it any wonder people get frustrated and flame out?
Of course, the opposite is true as well. I know far too many people who were converted to Christ and stopped right there. They never decided to be obedient to his call to love and serve his church. I know even more people (probably most of the Christians I know) who were never converted to the world. They love to serve fellow-Christians but seldom give a thought to the lost. It's not that they don't know or care about them, it's just that they never gained that passion for them that Jesus had. They know the verse about Jesus weeping over his lost children, but they can't identify with it. They think of it as "mission work." Worse, they think about it as "somebody else's gift."
The purpose of the church is to glorify God. Yes. Absolutely. But we glorify Him in more ways then giving Him praise. We glorify Him by fulfilling His purpose for us. We glorify Him by loving Him with all our heart. We glorify Him by loving our neighbor as ourself. But we also glorify Him by going into the world and making disciples. It is the most important task He assigned us, and the most often overlooked.
I wish I could get on my high horse about this and point to all of the souls I've helped bring to Christ over the years but I can't. The truth is that I've failed as much as anyone. It's not a matter of fear. It's a matter of neglect.
It's time I was converted to the world.
posted by Thurman8er @ 2:04 PM
3 Comments:
I too am convicted by your statements my math brother. We do pretty good on the "first two conversions" but we (I) have trouble with being converted to the world. I wonder why?
Ah, yes. The old belong, believe, behave paradigm. Or is it believe, belong, become? Or could it be belong, believe become, behave? No- that's too many. Perhaps for me it is just "be quiet..."
Thanks for the post, Steve.
Barclay is a good writer, Steve, but I don't know if he's talking chronological order here or not. The newly converted convert the not-yet-converted. They were in the world and they know what it's like to be in darkness now that they are in the light. They are often already converted to the world, that's why they share so eagerly their faith with their friends.
Good point though about bringing people to Christ. God is at work in you as you work on this aspect of your love for Him
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