Jn 12.26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
Are we following Him, are we serving Him? or are we following our own leadings and serving ourselves and dressing it up as Christian.
How do we define success in church planting/leading?
I have a problem with the church.
There are many within it that do not follow the teaching of Jesus, many of them are leaders.
Many are pandering to worldly ideas of success –
must have a big church
must have good programs that help the community
must have seeker friendly services so as not to offend
must be acceptable in the community, seen as a good citizen.
No problem if these happen, but if these are our goal we've totally missed the point.
What did Jesus teach?
Love God
Love your fellow man
Follow me, obey my commandments
Preach the kingdom of God,
Demonstrate the kingdom, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead
Go and make disciples in all nations, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you
Baptise them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
I can’t recall Jesus saying much else about:-
buildings, services, programs, social action initiatives, being ‘nice’
Jn 15.13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends
Jesus led by example.
Why do moves of God rise and fall.
Not God ‘s plan for them to fall
Although plenty of scripture to show that they do – history of Israel.
Consider Joshua 1: 8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate in it day and night , that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success." - nothing about room for failure.
Deuteronomy has a thread of Obedience running through it,
coupled with chapter 28 is the intention of blessings: success, growth, leadership;
and for disobedience, curses.
The Old testament has a history of Israel's ups and downs from which we should learn.
Moves of God in last 400 years
The effects of some have been far reaching,
much of the original LIFE of the moves has not been carried though into the next generations,
move peeters out or
gets into a rut of religious ritualism,
or a socially nice group with ideals and routines.
Think of some of our great international denominations that were birthed in revival by men of God with passion.
Charles Wesley
William Booth
John Knox
Martin Luther
John Calvin
Attempted solution
Some folk try to pump up the move. but it runs out and so on.
They try and keep the same move going but miss the LIFE of Christ.
A move may run out of life, but life will always be on the move. (Ross Knight)
God’s answer
2 Tim 2.2 New Living Translation (©2007)
You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.
2nd and successive generations of a move there has been a tendency:-
to rest on their laurels or
become maintenance oriented rather than be Presence of God oriented and to move in His project or objectives.
Some are happy to perpetuate things rather than progress beyond the status quo.
Even truth can become tradition without life.
You can exercise faith in Truth all the time,
But tradition doesn't need faith and can be just a thing to do,
Tradition without faith has no life of God in it.
Watch out for part 2 coming soon.
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