REVOLUTIONIZING THE CHURCH - PART 1

If we’re going to fulfill the mission that Jesus gave us as the church, we must become revolutionaries and start a worldwide revolution by revolutionizing the church.

The world is changing…exponentially. It’s moving further and further away from what it really needs… God, truth, forgiveness, purpose, and hope. In a word, it needs redemption. But, for the people in and of this world to find what they need, those who have it must wake them up to it. And, therein lies the problem.

A world that is going through revolutionary changes can’t be reached, convinced, or woken up by a church where everything remains the same. Of course, I’m not talking about the truth itself. Truth never changes. But, I am talking about the way the church engages the world with the Truth. To wake up a world going through revolutionary changes requires that the church is revolutionary itself.

While I know this sounds foreign to a lot of Christians and church leaders; the reality is that this is exactly what God has called us to be and do. In fact, it should come naturally for genuine Christ followers because Jesus was a revolutionary.

A simple reading of the Sermon on the Mount makes this clear. He entered a world that was turned inward and focused on keeping God and His promises for the few. He started a revolution that turned God’s people outward and focused on sharing God and His promises with the many. He entered a world that viewed power and prosperity as a means of being served. He started a revolution that viewed them as a means of serving others.

Of course, the early church followed in Jesus’ footsteps. It became a revolutionary force focused outward and bent on serving others. This picture is beautifully painted in Acts 2:41-47.

Sadly, the majority of those who claimed to be “God’s people” rejected the revolution of Jesus and the early church. They preferred keeping God and His promises to themselves. They chose to see God as being in the world to serve them rather than them in the world to serve Him and those He loved. As a result, they put Jesus on a cross and persecuted His Church.  They did this because they had lost God in the predictability of their practices. Over time, their traditions had replaced God and His truth. Jesus made this clear in Matthew 15:1-3.

Though we are 2000 years removed from these events, we have to realize that the same thing is going on today. Many of those who claim to be “Christ followers” have lost Jesus in the predictability of their practices. They have turned inward and see their faith as being for the few. They are seeking to keep the church serving their interests and preferences rather than making sure that it is serving God’s purposes.

What the church today needs is what Jesus came to bring…a revolution. (In my next post, I’ll address more of what this looks like.)

Thoughts?