Wednesday, March 4

Three questions for every church

1. What is your church doing to deliberately make disciples?

2. What is your church doing to intentionally plant/reproduce new churches?

3. What is your church doing missions-wise to be His witnesses in your Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and ends of the earth?

While I realize there is more to being the Bride of Christ than the answer to these three questions, it is hard for me to conceive of a church calling herself a church that is not making disciples of the nations. The heart of God is a missionary one that loved the world so much that He gave what was most precious to Him, Jesus, so that we might be called the 'children of God'.

While there is certainly room in the Church for more than evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and missions, if we allow these to become anything less that priority mandates, the inevitable result will be a turning inwards and the beginning of a decline resulting in eventual death of that body of believers.

My own observations about the continual decline occurring within the Southern Baptist Convention is directly related to the loss of this focus we have traditionally had as a denomination.

QUESTION: So how do we turn the decline around?

ANSWER: Try answering honestly the above three questions!

2 comments:

Phillip Fletcher said...

Hello Guy,

Our church meets in a very large mobile home park. The first Sunday of the month we gather for prayer and then scatter through the park. The other Sundays we gather for song, teaching, etc. So to answer your questions:

1. We deliberately push ourselves to meet with people in their homes, pray, read Scripture and discuss life. My wife and some women do this same thing every Tuesday as well. No day is ever the same and it is rewarding to see what the Lord does.

2. One of our brother's Steve is being led to plant on another side of the trailer park. This is very exciting because God is pushing us forward to reach new faces and not be complacent.

3. Right now we are in Jerusalem and we look forward to see how God will continue to push us out through the city and beyond.

Overall it is a joy, it is messy at times but prayer is very important

Thanks for the questions.

Phillip

J. Guy Muse said...

Philip,

Sounds like you have indeed answered the three questions. All that sounds great! While all these things you are involved with may be messy, the Kingdom of God is expanded. Keep on keeping on, bro!