The Church

What is the problem? Is there a problem? Some would answer,No! There is no problem with the Church. Leave well enough alone. Some would say that the problem with the Church, is that there are people out there saying there is a problem. People would say that I"m the problem with the Church. I'm the kind of guy who goes around disrupting the order of what is going on. I'm stirring up issues, that if I would just get on board and shut up wouldn't be issues. Is that true? Am I just making something out of nothing? Is what we see in our country now what the Church is supposed to look like? You know, what are we trying to accomplish as a Church? I'm not sure that this question gets asked enough. I'm doing a study on a book called "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin Raphael McManus. In this book there is a part that says "... Jesus began His public ministry with a simple invitation: "Come, follow Me." His closing instructions to His disciples can be summarized in one word, "Go!" A quick survey of the modern church would lead you to believe His invitation was " Come, and listen." and His closing mandate would be summarized in the word "No!" Is this true?

What if it is? If this is true what would the Church look like? I think that it would look like a bunch of individual groups of people. It would look like a building with one name on it, was in competition with a building with another name on it. It would look like building "A" would be competing to get more people in it than building "B". It would look like building "B" is trying to recruit people from Building "A", because these people have gifts, or skills that they don't have. It would look like people measuring their success by how many people are there every time they meet. It might look like people in the Church are only identified as Church people, because they go to one of these buildings once a week, dressed up in a "uniform" in a sense. It might even look like certain people aren't aloud in one building or another because they don't dress up to social standards. If this were true about the Church it would look more like a social club rather than a place of worship. Now the question is, what does the church look like here today?

Does the Church look like a group of people working together to achieve a common goal? Does the Church look like the different branches of the military working together, using their different areas of expertise to defeat the common enemy? Does the Church look like a building? Or does it look like a Kingdom? When people ask you "What Church do you go to?" Is your answer: "This Church, on this street, in this city."?

If it is, what are you learning from "This Church...."? See when I read the Bible, God tells me that I am the Church, that You are the Church. He tells me that we are all one Body, yes different parts of that Body, but one Body just the same. He tells me that no part of the Body other that the Head is more important than any other part. I know that each part of my body is for different things, and serve different purposes. I also know that when I want to run, or jump, or walk, or even stretch. All the parts of my body need to work together to achieve that Goal. In the same way so does the Church. We do have a job. We have an objective, given to us by our Commander In Chief. How successful would a wide receiver be without a Quarter back? How successful would a batter be without a pitcher to throw him the ball. How successful can the Church be, without The Lord being the center of our focus.

Satan thinks like boxers. If the body goes down the head will follow. What Satan doesn't take into consideration is that our head is watching every punch he throws. It's telling us which way to move in order to dodge his punch. He is telling His hands which punches to throw. His feet which way to step, and his body to tighten up to deliver the blow. God is undefeated, and undisputed. He defeated the one thing that Satan had control over, Death. The best way to get to your destination is to follow someone who has already been there, and who knows all the safe routs.

Take a look around, and tell me what does the Church look like here today?