The Glorious Church

In our service at Bethel Temple today the sermon was on The Work of the Church. This was
based on the events surrounding the conversion of Saul the Pharisee to Paul the Apostle. Throughout this chapter, we observed that the Work of the Church includes Miracles….God must be active doing what He does best…miracles. It was an absolute miracle that Saul encountered Christ on the road to Damascus and later became the apostle to the Gentiles. We also discovered that doing the work of God involves risk. God's instructions to Ananias, and then Barnabas's encouragement to the apostles in Jerusalem involved a great deal of risk-taking. Finally, we observed how in Acts 9:31, the church was blessed and MULTIPLIED. It's here that I want to make some further comments. The growth of a church is dependent on relationships and multiplication. The Book of Acts talks about how the excitement concerning the Gospel got everyone's attention. It appears today that the "church" is trying everything but the right thing. Ok, I KNOW that I'm not the expert on Church growth, but in my short time so far here on earth (soon to be 45 years)…I've observed that across denominations, churches too quickly go to a business/leadership model that is marketing driven, rather than God-centered. How so? When I worked on a Ph.D. in Administration (at a Baptist Seminary, which effectively focused on Church administration) fourteen years ago, there was this perpetual temptation to baptize (no pun intended) the secular leadership and management literature and push it on the church. There are some obvious things that fit: conflict resolution, planning, leading, organizing, and supervising. The Church, however is different! As an organism that belongs to Christ, we have One who has promised to "Build My Church" (Matt 16:18). We have gifts from God to help with the load (Ephesians 4:11-16). The growth of the church in Acts was nothing short than monumental. Consider the summary statements after 3000 confessed Christ on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:42. Then later, the church added more in Acts 4:4 and Acts 6:7. God was at work in the miraculous and the results of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; 10:44-46). So, what's the point? Human enthusiasm and excitement can only go so far…there must be something real happening for people to want to come to your church. Lives must be changed from encountering Christ. We're thrilled at what God is doing at Bethel Temple. May the Lord bless your church too as you focus on the miraculous, make a commitment to manage risk, and see His blessings. Jesus said it best in Matthew 16:18. Let's "keep in step with the Spirit" and see God work in His church.