I have come to realize that everything God has taught me over the past two years is tied together by a single theme and composes a single message. It is this message that has overthrown my spiritual worldview and shaken me to the core. All things had to be re-evaluated in light of this message. A torrent of emotion has raged in me and is passing through me, and would have destroyed me but for the grace of God.
This message was God's answer to a series of questions I had asked in prayer. I initially asked why our church wasn't growing and hadn't grown in years. I prayed for His kingdom and His will, and prayed that my own will and His would be one. I expected that having offered my will so completely and having prayerfully beseeched him on behalf of His own kingdom, that God would tell me some great thing that I could go do in order to build his kingdom and grow the church. Instead he took me into the biggest spritual storm of my life.
I have considered writing about this many times, but have refrained from doing so. Considering the waves of emotion flowing through me I didn't think I could present the message with the proper balance of boldness and love it required. I also didn't feel God compelling me to do so. I needed to fully internalize the message myself before preaching it to others, lest I transfer my burden to them instead of being changed myself.
If I were to write that book however, it would be titled "Whose Kingdom are We Building?" Below are the chapters it would contain.
Church Growth or Church Growth - our metric of success
Teaching vs. Discipling
Being vs. Knowing, Believing or Doing
Leadership and the Church
Money and the Church
Church as a Business vs. Church as the Body of Christ
Religious Obligation vs. Spiritual Desire
Looking a Pharasee in the Mirror
Do We Really Believe the Bible is God's Word?
The Tale of Two Kingdoms
Simply Be
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1 comment:
Get to writing. :)
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