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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Rob Bell on the church

Let me give you a thought from Rob Bell (Velvet Elvis):

The church does not exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; it’s about all the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart.

This is especially true today in the world we live in where so many people are hostile to the church, many for good reason. We reclaim the church as a blessing machine not only because that is what Jesus intended from the beginning but also because serving people is the only way their perceptions of church are ever going to change.

This is why it is so toxic for the gospel when Christians picket and boycott and complain about how bad the world is. This behavior doesn’t help. It makes it worse. It isn’t the kind of voice Jesus wants his followers to have in this world. Why blame the dark for being dark? It is far more helpful to ask why the light isn’t as bright as it could be.

1 comment:

Teresa O. said...

I think Erwin McManus's quote sums the church well, "Before we can even begin to explore how the church can really live, we must first be willing to die. We must be willing to die to our conveniences, our traditions, and our preferences-everything that places us above others" (An Unstoppable Force).

This morning I heard on the news the reason Halloween is getting bigger and bigger with adults is because it's the one holiday for self. Is that Satan all over or what! People can say over and over I have been in church for 30 years and I love God. The sad thing is many don’t even voice they love God. Hosea 7:9 says, foreign idols have sapped all their strength and they don’t even know it (NLT). Is that why many are no longer in ministry? Their idols are themselves, their children’s soccer games, football games, grandparents, grandkids, etc? We all have idols that keep us from having the energy we need to have in order to serve God with joy and fullness. We must ask God what needs to be removed so that we can serve Him, not ourselves, families – our idols.

I want to know in 30-40 years after serving God that I've been out of the church, out in the world, out among all people, being the hands and feet of Jesus, going to their needs, not waiting for them to come to me, or rather don't bother me. I don’t want to operate because it’s the latest fad, but I definitely don’t want to operate by remaining isolated to a denomination or church because it’s been around for 40-50 years. I want to go where Jesus wants me to go and be what Jesus wants me to be, of course, inside the church building, but even more so through the week where I spend the majority of my time. But, I can't do very well at being Jesus without being in the Word and prayer. I cannot expect to be Jesus if all I do is walk in and out of a building and never seek to know HIM. Words are nothing when they aren't backed up by action.