When church is unplugged from programs and unleashed from sermons, people are free to obey the present moment promptings of the Spirit and God is powerfully present.
Does church constantly contain God in your comfort zone or does church compel you into continuous commitment to God’s uncomfortable calling, compassion, creativity, and challenges!
Perhaps church is supposed to be a bouquet of believers blessing one another, rather than one solitary speaker. (1 Corinthians 14:26).
People grow spiritually by God’s spontaneous life flow. “Out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” –Jesus
If you are a believer, you are not just called to sit under a priest, a preacher, a clergyman, a minister, or a pastor — you are one!
God is looking for a generation that will hear and obey the Holy Spirit’s voice, rather than the voices of men, of comfort, and/or of custom. If you are a Christ-follower, then (regardless of your occupation) you are a minister and you are as called as any other minister on earth.
This idea was one of the central themes of the Protestant Reformation and is known as “the priesthood of the believer.” However, unfortunately, it was only taught as a doctrine, but not actually put into practice in church worship meetings. Perhaps it is time to let ordinary people live it in church. The world has seen men proclaimed as great ministers of God . . . Maybe now the world needs to see the great God working in and through everyday men and women.
The way to grow is to go. Abraham was told to leave his familiar comfort zone and to enter the unknown. His simple obedience led to the world’s 3 great monotheistic (belief in One God) religions. Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world and tell people about Him — to “shout it from the housetops.” Their obedience led to a world-changing spiritual movement that continues 2,000 years later and to the largest religion in the world.
God is still speaking today. Amazing good and grace will spring forth if we will but begin to obey the holy promptings of God to leave our comfort zone and “go tell it on the mountain.”
The purpose of church is not just to provide religious teaching and entertainment, but to hook people up with the life-transforming and heart-transforming presence of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.
Profound question . . . If the living God, the same God who led the children of Israel with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, is present when we meet in His name, why do we need a professional and a program to lead a Sunday morning church service?
When ordinary members of the body of Christ freely flow in the Spirit, glorious beauty radiates from everyday people. When everyday believers begin to share Christ humbly from the heart, a mighty move of God will start! “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!”
Recently at The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville a high school student shared how God is working in her life and you could feel His fire burning in her heart as she spoke. It was contagious and begin to spread from heart to heart.
Perhaps church services could move beyond attenders sitting to hear sermons; and let them stand to share stories about how the living, resurrected Jesus Christ is actively working in their lives.
Maybe a pastor’s job in a church service is like a football official — to oversee the action and only interrupt if there is an infraction. (1 Corinthians 14:26)
Christianity is . . .
not teaching, not theology;
not tradition, not technique;
but transformation through
the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.
