What a Question!
I was teaching an adult Bible class tonight from John 15. The text made the point that Christians must bear fruit. I pointed out the necessity of remaining in Christ. If we fail to walk in Jesus we can’t bear fruit. We must live our lives as Jesus lived His life. Our Messiah came first to seek and save the lost, Luke 19:10. Second, according to Acts 10:38, Jesus went about doing good. In order that we walk in the footsteps of the Christ we must emphasize doing good as we reach out to the lost.
During the class one of the men asked a great question. He asked, “Why is it that some churches around us grow while many times we don’t?” We will never make a major difference until we find this answer.
It is absolutely essential that we honestly deal with the question. For too many years we have offered the same pat answer. The answer we have given is, “We are teaching truth everyone else is telling the people what they want to hear, therefore, they grow and we don’t.” I refuse to accept this answer, because it is not truth! One of the fastest growing groups in the United States today is the Mormans. There is absolutely no way that converting someone to Joseph Smith is easier than bringing them to Jesus! It is time we faced the truth. It is not more difficult to convert people to truth than to error. Our excuses leave the impression that God’s truth is unpleasant and has no drawing power. It is time we stop offering excuses which make us feel better. We need to face some hard facts.
We have become satisfied with far less than that which pleases God. We have come to accept the following idea. We think if one holds the accepted “five items of worship” and keeps the correct “patterns of doctrine” God is pleased with him. Our emphasis on these points has crippled our ability to make a difference in peoples lives.
Scripture refers to followers of God as the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Salt and light have one thing in common, they make things better. Christians who make things better do so by bearing fruit. Christians who bear fruit are those who go about doing good. If we do good we make a difference in peoples lives. The more lives we effect the more opportunities we have to preach Jesus. Don’t miss this!
THE REASON OTHERS GROW AND WE DON’T IS SIMPLE. THEY ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF MORE PEOPLE. We have been so concerned about worship patterns and doctrine we have forgotten to follow Jesus. Following in the footsteps of Jesus requires much more than arguing Scripture. We can bear very little fruit unless we change our emphasis and direction.“Why is it some churches around us grow while we don’t?” Wow what a queston! It is time we face up to the answer. Growth requires being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We can be neither of these until we are willing to make a difference in the communities we call home.
In some ways it is amazing to me how we have gotten sidetracked into devoting so much time and effort into focusing on legalistically correct worship services and the doctrine surrounding that topic. We have had a tendency to feel Godly and worthy because of our willingness to defend the “sound doctrine” of how to follow the New Testament pattern with our five acts of worship. It hasn’t even crossed the minds of many of our churches that we are having no impact on our communities. We are not shedding light and we are not adding flavor.
Thanks for your important questions today. Hopefully we can awaken from our trance and get back to the real world. Brother
Wow! What a wake-up call! You are so right, as long as we make no impact on our community we will only exist. Jesus never took time off from doing good. The only time He went off to be alone was to talk to His Father. We must get out of our cocoon and share Jesus with the world. Our world begins with the people we see every day. The world is very good at leaving Jesus out of their lives. We must be good enough at letting Jesus live through us that the world will want what we have. When we do our part Jesus will do His. Then we will begin to grow.
jc in Slackland
Some of you may have heard, as Landon Saunders said at the ACU lectureship last Fall, “if we (ministers in particular, all of us in general) spend 70%+ of our time inwardly focused, and 30% (or much less, it seems) of our time outwardly focused, what is going to be the benefit?” He also said, “I now spend 70% of my time outside the building and 30% on the inside. Good wisdom…but doesn’t fit with “the system” of so many places. We need a complete paradigm shift in relationship to reaching the lost.
1mm
It is the unfortunate fact that much of the human race finds pleasure and satisfaction in being in love with the idea of religion, faith, and fruit bearing than actually doing anything about it. It is not isolated to Godly things but all things. Folks are generally lazy followers, not movers and shakers. But attitude can change those faults in me and others. I believe the Lord calles us to change, lets Love the IDEA and then move and shake.
I wish one day I can own such a popular blog as yours.