THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING .
Ministry is not (or shouldn’t be) about the development of the entity. It should be about the development of the individuals entrusted to us. So many times people with skills or talents are ushered into a place of “ministry” because the entity needs their skill or talent, not because they are spiritually qualified.
This type of thinking comes from some concepts that are very ingrained in our religious mentality.
- The building is the church.
We say we go “to church.” We don’t go “to church,” the church gathers. We call the church building “the house of God.” The building is not “the house of God,” it may be a “house of worship,” but we are the house of God.
- The local work is God’s kingdom.
Typically a person leaving the local congregation is seen as leaving the “Kingdom of God” even if he is moving to work in another congregation. I learned this harsh lesson personally when I left West Texas, but I also had hammered some good people and lost the opportunity for long lasting relationships because I adopted this thought process from the leadership I was under.
The reason we have become so pastor focused is because our Christianity is so tied to the building and as mentioned before our tendency to adopt modern American business practices for church leadership instead of basing it on Scripture.
The world needs Jesus and we have Him, but not in the sense that we own Him or are exclusive. It would be more like we own the property that a river runs through.
Our job, as a church, is to fulfill the will or intention of God. His intent was that the world, through the church, would come to know Him and become His disciples.
The question is not if we should go to church it’s how can we go “be” the church?
