the basic message #E31
1 Corinthians 5:11-13
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, and idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
How are things going in your church? How would you describe your church to a stranger? Do you have a “nice” church? Perhaps your church is a “friendly” church. Both are good qualities for a church to have, but what is the key purpose of the church? Is the primary goal of the church open for discussion or debate? No need to wonder, let’s go to the answer man, Jesus Christ.
Mark 16:15-16
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Thank you Jesus, for clarifying the purpose of the church. Some churches rely on theatrical productions or musicals to build interest. Big, beautiful buildings are the main attraction at other churches. I can walk into a church for the first time and be able to tell you what their “hook” is by the time I leave. Please read the passage above and see if you can find anything that approves alternative methods for the main ministry. Search the bible and see if you can find the phrase “youth program”, or “senior’s ministry”, or “single’s outreach”. I don’t see sub-ministries in the bible for youth, seniors or singles in Jesus day, but they existed back then, didn’t they? Quick review of the purpose of the church: A. Preach Good News. B. Make sure everyone believes.
How have we taken the simple purpose of the church and somehow turned it into a side-show? Do we really need to take the youth group to the bowling alley to talk about salvation? Are we preaching the Good News to the singles group, or just creating an alcohol-free “happy hour” to pair off singles? The oddest category by far is the Senior’s Group. In some churches, the people in the Senior’s Group have been in that same church all of their life. I’ve got a question: If a person is, for example, 75 years old and that church hasn’t been able to convey the message of the cross yet, what is a Senior’s Group going to do now to make that happen? Ohhhhhh, the Senior’s Group isn’t in operation to evangelize, it’s just to entertain the seniors? I didn’t see that listed in the purpose of the church.
Time to cut to the chase, friends. Take a good, hard look at your church this Sunday. What is the church spending its time, money and resources on? After you finish your list, go down the line and use the two conditions listed in the scripture above to find out how well your church is on track. Make no mistake, the church has largely become an entertainment complex that seeks to be all things to all people. Please don’t email me saying that, “The church must compete”. We choose to compete, and we justify the competition. God has no competition until we create it. Jesus wouldn’t be able to find the ministry he outlined if he went into many modern churches. Preachers love to tell the story of Jesus driving out the money changers from the temple. If Jesus made a tour of some “dynamic” churches today, many items would feel the sting of his whip. $100,000 pipe organs, expensive “art”, and sound systems with controls panels that look like they belong at NASA would all likely have whip marks. So what’s the purpose of your church? Evangelism, or entertainment?