You Are The Church - The Living Stones

.... People don't come to church; people ARE the church (1 Peter 2:5). I believe God's  goal for the church isn't to accumulate a crowd and impart information to them. God's goal isn't to create an emotional experience that will keep people charged up for a few hours or even days and make them want to come back so they can feel it again.  I believe Jesus Christ's goal is that we, as his followers, are to raise up biblical disciples and deploy them into the world so they can raise up other disciples. Christ's disciples are called to grow into 'copies' of Jesus who rightly deliver His message in His way.

I truly believe that if people could see Jesus for who He really is, they would love Him. Unfortunately, most people who have rejected Him, have done so because they've been shown a false Jesus. A graven image or an idol of Jesus, as we present Him in our lives. That's the big question we need to explore: how do you make disciples so that our Parish experience real faith and reveal the real Christ to the world in a way that glorifies Him?

Stealing some thoughts from another pastor, my parish is filled with a lot of goodhearted people who want to do the right thing. But when we, as the Church, do not explain what we mean when we say, "Follow Christ," church can get a little rocky even with the best-hearted people in the world. It is important to consider that it's not just 'the world' that tries to tear apart our faith and love. We have a scheming, lying spiritual enemy who wants to confuse, lie and bring doubt in to what we do. He sows the seeds of division. 

For that reason, we as church leaders, servants of Christ to our parishes, must constantly clarify our words and meaning, communicate clearly and, where necessary, resolve our family conflicts if we are to succeed. And succeeding looks like following Jesus Christ, being changed by Him and then being on mission with Him.