1 – CHRIST, MISSION, AND THE CHURCH – Not Church, Mission And Christ – Time To Come Back To Jesus

Not Church, Mission And Christ – Time To Come Back To The Call Of Jesus

In lesson one here, we’re looking at Chapter One in my new book The Call Of Jesus. We’re looking at our call as believers and the church. Where in the Bible do we find a call to be a worship leader or a businessman or any other thing we so often focus on besides the Call of Jesus? I’m not saying it’s all wrong to believe you’re called to do that, as long at “our” call doesn’t get our focus away from the true CALL Jesus has given us all. Yes, our call is to OBEY HIM and nothing else!

The sad truth is that we often are so focused on our church and our church tradition that we forget Jesus and His call. Yes, we’re also busy doing missions but it’s often from out of the box we call Church instead of from Jesus and His Words!

Where do we find Jesus saying that we need to get a fine building and meet there every Sunday, and from there invite people to come to us so they can get saved? We don’t see that! No, the harvest is ready, but we need to GO OUT THERE to them as Jesus has called us to!
 
In this lesson, I talk about the three big things we can focus on – Christology, Missionology and Ecclesiology, which are the teachings about Christ,Mission and Church.
 
Which of these three should come first in our life….??? Is it Church first, and then mission, and Christ last? The sad truth is that we often start with Church and our tradition, instead of Christ. If we start with church, then mission will look so very different from the mission Jesus has given us!
 
Let’s start with Jesus first, and then do mission as HE calls us to, NOT as our church tradition says, and then end up with church. But then, this will be church that’s so much different from what we see today. It will be a church that’s so much the same as we read in the Bible, in the book of Acts!

Let’s read some from chapter one in my new book:

”Today, much of what we think makes up a ‘real’ church and much of what we do today to ‘serve Christ’ is actually stealing from us our first love for Him that we once had. The fire we had for Christ in the beginning is being stolen from us because we are focusing so much on the church instead of focusing on Him and how we can obey Him. We sometimes forget that Jesus has not called us to build big, beautiful churches with lots of members. I am not saying it is a bad thing to have a place to meet and gather with others, but I am saying this should never be the end goal. Jesus has called us to make disciples, where we baptize them, and teach them to do all He has commanded us. This is our life’s goal, and it is so clearly written in the Bible, right in front of us. We can sit in our big, beautiful churches with a lot of activities and still not fulfill the goal Jesus has given to us. It is time to stop doing what we have been doing and go back to what Jesus is calling us to do.”

Yes, let’s see a reformation of the church and come back to JESUS! There’s a reason why many pastors and leaders are getting stressed and burned out. This is what Jesus is saying in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (NKJV)

Yes, His way is best! Let’s read some more from the book here:

”…the truth is that today, 2000 years after Christ was on earth, we are spending our time, our energy, and our money to get our churches to succeed. We spend our time, energy, and money to get people to come to our church meetings. However, we do not do what Jesus told us to do. Maybe this is the reason we see so little fruit and why we see so many people losing their faith and their first love for God. We, as Jesus’ disciples, have been fishing the whole night without catching anything, as Jesus’ disciples did in John 21:3-6. Now it is time we do what He says, that we act on His Word. It is as simple as casting the net on the other side. Let’s not focus so much on the church first, mission second, and Christ third. Let’s start with Christ first and then let Him reveal the mission to us, then let the church unfold the way Jesus has planned.”

AMEN….
I encourage you to see this video and share it with others! You can get the book as an Ebook, or printed paperback here on AMAZON or on our website: www.THELASTREFORMATION.COM

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