I heard a pastor say recently: “If you know Jesus, I am sorry to break
it to you: this church is not for you.” He continued by addressing those
who came to know Jesus the previous week at the church: “Last week was
the last week that [this church] existed for you.” Though maybe not to
this degree, I think many of us fledgling-planters have erred on the
side of an “its-all-about-mission” philosophy of ministry.
Certainly it is exciting when droves of souls are genuinely converted
to Jesus Christ. No doubt, the church always needs a zeal for
evangelism and I frequently see a lack thereof in myself, rooted in
pride and laziness. Repentance is needed. Insofar as doxological zeal
exists in church-planters, we ought to praise God.
However, grave consequences result among young church-planters and
pastors who—even unknowingly—embrace an “all-about-mission,”
“this-church-is-no-longer-for-you,” and
“the-gospel-causes-us-to-look-up…not-in-to-ourselves-and-how-we’re-doing,”
philosophy of ministry.
The error is that sanctification gets
sacrificed on the altar of mission. It is an error I have made in my
ministry, being so fixated on getting people in, I have neglected those
who are already there. Keep Reading>>>
No comments:
Post a Comment