I recently read Gordon MacDonald's book Who Stole My Church? The book is fiction, but the plot is so real for many churches that have tried to move into the 21st century. The title Who Stole My Church originated when a dear lady, struggling with change, cried out "Who Stole My Church? I just want my church back."
Imagine that! Owning a church? Did she purchase it or something? How do you buy a church?
We need to remember that it is His church. He bought it with His blood. Imagine the error of thinking that any of us owns a church. The church is not ours to be stolen from. In fact, if we feel like the church is being stolen from us, wouldn't that mean that we first stole it from Him???
Acts 20:28 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."
I'm convinced the reason churches lose their effectiveness is that people rule instead of God. Holding on to tradition and preference the church becomes irrelevant. 'Holiness' is no excuse for barrenness. Remember the 'fig' tree!
God is building His church! Any church not seeing conversions is dying.
Let's give the church back to God. He'll do a better job building it than we ever will.
1 comment:
These are some pretty strong statements. So often we consider a church our own because we go there; we give our time, money, and efforts for the work. So it makes us feel as if we have a say in its work and mission. We lose the original focus of the church and God's mission. We forget to let God lead, and try our own things. How successful and godly a church could be if it was really "RUN BY GOD!" Great thoughts!
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