Church Decisions

Many churches are driven by different forces. The decisions a church makes can be driven by finances, the building, personal influences, or the purpose of the church.

When a church is driven by its finances, the reoccurring theme is "How much will this idea cost us?"

If driven by its building, the answer always sounds something like, "Well, it's a nice idea but we can't do something like that in our church. Something can be stolen or broken!"

If driven by a person, a few phone calls or intimidating words will seal the deal for any decision.

But, when a church is driven by it's purpose, amazing things can happen. This begs the question, "What is the purpose of the church?" We are called to make disciples of all the earth, bringing them the Good News. This means we are to invest time, money, energy, and tremendous effort into loving people, serving them, and introducing them to a God who died to turn their wrongs into nothing more than their past.

I know, investing so much into people who may literally wipe their ends with what you've given them seems too risky and not worth the pain, but as the old adage goes, "No pain, no gain." Jesus gave himself up for a people who would slander his name, abuse his grace, and ridicule his teachings. As he died on the cross, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." We have to take up the same attitude when dealing with those who use the church one weekend, and badmouth the leadership the next. They don't know how precious the work the church does really is, but can we blame them for it? No, because He didn't.

We are the redemptive work of God through Jesus. We are the builders of His Kingdom, voluntarily here to introduce the peace of Christ to a world in chaos. If we allow the stress of this life to consume us, we are allowing the fire God has given us to be quenched, and we become useless for the work of the Gospel.

As the church, we must wake up every morning KNOWING that there our people literally dying to hear the message of Christ, and we must operate out of a desperation to do the will of the Father. From the moment we step out of bed we need to put on the mind of Christ, and treat every conversation, thought, and action as an opportunity to bring the light into our world.

Let's not worry about money, church attendance, a building that will eventually crumble anyway, or what someone will think of us. Rather, let's focus on building the Church, a body that will never crumble or decay, and will never go bankrupt. God will open up His heavenly storehouses on us and provide us with what we need to build His Church.

God bless you today, and this week.

Pastor Alex