Just Maybe We’re Doing It All Wrong?

I was recently scanning through various “Christian” articles on the internet and stumbled across one that “hit me between the eyes” with words of truth I had never given a great deal of thought to. It had to do with church and the idea that maybe we are doing this whole “church thing” wrong. Stick with me a few minutes, please.

It seems easier for most of us to tell people all about our church than it is for us to tell people about our Jesus. We are able to sit down and tell our friends and co-workers all about how great our church is, how exciting our preacher is, how much there is for the kids to do, etc., etc. But, when it comes to talking about Jesus, we flounder and falter, if we do it at all. We can carry on about the extension works of our church but can’t even bring up JESUS in the process.

I had to ask myself a big WHY to all this. And I arrived at this conclusion. It is because in talking about our church, we are talking about something that we have had a part in building. We have all worked together to design it’s facilities and its programs. We have contributed greatly to building a fine edifice that we can be proud of. Whoops! I went there…. I used that “proud” word. Pride is why we can talk all about our church but can’t carry on a conversation about our SAVIOR.

We can walk around patting ourselves on the back for a church facility worth millions of dollars, talking about how our church is the fastest growing in the area, our church reaches thousands through its outreach programs and TV appearances; but, we never bring up JESUS? When I see a multi-million dollar church being built, my heart cries out because I recognize how much good those millions would have been in the hands of people on the front-line really talking about Jesus, really working for Jesus, impacting a world that is dying and going to hell.

I have to stop for a minute and consider what GOD’s Word has to say about all this: “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:17-2).

This passage doesn’t seem to mention a physical structure or man-conceived programming. It appears that JESUS is what it is all about. The church is a group of people wholly committed to the plans of JESUS. I believe it is time we get back to the basics. It is time for us to begin talking JESUS rather than all about our church. It is time for us to look at the finances we have been blessed with as a body and ask GOD how they can best be used to share JESUS with a lost and dying world.

Much of my ministry has been front-line ministry. I have worked with individuals who didn’t necessarily “fit-in” to the local church; fact is, the local church didn’t want them coming in and “messing up their fine facilities” or “bringing their dirty children in and mixing in with our kids.” Hmmm, there is a problem there—a pride problem—that hinders the church from truly reaching out and impacting lives. As a front-liner, I have also struggled to survive, usually working a full-time job while ministering during every other opportunity I could muster. All the while, churches, which should be investing in this work, are too busy dumping all their money into their little group and its activities. Where is JESUS in all this?

Church, pastors, preachers, church leaders, church members—it is time to stop pushing your agendas and start pushing JESUS! The church is not your building and all its finery—the CHURCH is the Body of CHRIST fulfilling His plan and purposes in this lost world! Think about it: we just may be doing it all wrong—but we don’t have to continue that way!