Rediscover the Church
If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. - (1 Peter 4:11)
We are living in a time in which some people are saying that we need to re-envision the church or reinvent the church. But I beg to differ. I think we need to rediscover the church. I don’t think we need a new version of it as much as we need to get back to the original version that Jesus himself established.
That is the church that changed the world. That is the church that turned its world upside down. I don’t know about the church of today. It seems to me the world today is turning the church upside down.
I think the answer is to get as close as we can to the original foundation and template for the church that Jesus himself established. This is God’s original design for the church.
My goal as a senior pastor is not to have a big church; it is to have a strong church—and even more to the point, a biblical church. Having said that, there should be church growth, and I think the best kind of growth is through the addition of new believers.
A trend in a lot of churches today is to be relevant to the culture, so they are trying to do everything they can to connect. I am all for relevance. However, I do not believe in relevance at the expense of reverence. This is still the church. And when I stand up to speak, I am not there to entertain or to give my personal philosophy or political views. I am there to teach the Word of God and to call people to Jesus Christ.
I think sometimes we are trying so hard to be cool that we have forgotten how to be biblical. Let’s keep the integrity of our message intact.
Summary sentence: Have you noticed that sometimes a church can seek to be relevant at the expense of reverence?
Tags: church, new believers
Copyright © 2012 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
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You can receive a copy of Power in Prayer by Andrew Murray, in appreciation for your gift to Harvest this month. It is my prayer that it will help you learn how to pray more effectively…and that you will commit to praying for Harvest America.” —Greg
