Prodigal Elder Brother or Prodigal Prophet?

The story of the prodigal son is about a younger son who left home to live life on his own terms.  It also shows how the father, despite his waywardness, welcomed him with open arms. The story also examines the elder brother’s attitude, who is upset about the grand party thrown for a son who wasted family resources, led a sinful life, and now returns home claiming to have repented and changed. The story ends with two sons: one returns with remorse, but the other is the prodigal son.

The younger brother wanted to escape his father’s control, so he took his share of the inheritance, left home, rejected his father’s moral values, and lived as he wished. The older brother stayed home and obeyed his father in every way. However, when his father spent the remaining wealth on the wayward son who had returned, he exploded with anger. This revealed that he also did not love his father.

In his book “The Prodigal Prophet,” Tim Keller highlights different perspectives in the story of Jonah, comparing to the older brother in the story of the prodigal son. “The elder brother was not obeying out of love but only as a way, he thought, of putting his father in his debt, getting control over him so he had to do as his older son asked. Neither son trusted his father’s love. Both were trying to find ways of escaping his control. One did it by obeying all the father’s rules, the other by disobeying them all.”

Many prodigal “elder brothers” in the Church today live their lives fulfilling religious obligations, going to church regularly, yet without the heart to reach out to the lost. How can one, after knowing and experiencing the love of Christ, not have the heart for the lost? Have people become so complacent with the bare minimum of just attending church, or has the Church failed to make them uncomfortable over lost souls? We are all at fault. Either their experience of conversion is questionable, or the Church has numbed their heart.

In the story of Jonah, Jonah turns out to be the prodigal prophet. The classic Old Testament example of these two ways of running from God appears in the book of Jonah. Jonah takes turns acting as both the “younger brother” and the “older brother.” In the first two chapters of the book, Jonah disobeys and runs away from the Lord, and yet ultimately repents and asks for God’s grace, just as the younger brother leaves home but returns repentant.

In the last two chapters, however, Jonah obeys God’s command to go and preach to Nineveh. In both cases, however, he tries to control the agenda. The text indicates that Jonah resisted doing anything or even talking to the pagan sailors. The bad prophet, Jonah, is the very opposite of the Good Samaritan. He has no concern for the “common good,” no respect for the nonbelievers around him. In the New Testament book of James, the author argues that if you say you have a relationship with God based on His grace, and you see someone “without clothes and daily food” (James 2:15) and do nothing about it, you only prove that your faith is “dead”—unreal (verse 17).

That is why James can say, “Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful” (verse 13). Jonah's lack of mercy in his attitude and actions toward others reveals that he was a stranger in his heart to God's saving mercy and grace.

Daniel C. Timmer writes: “Jonah’s anti-missionary activity has ironically resulted in the conversion of non-Israelites.”

There is only one purpose and one mission, whether you are a child of God or serving God in some capacity.  It is to seek and save the lost. You can serve Him through your career or calling. It doesn’t matter where you are positioned. Church, it’s time to realign your focus by stirring and igniting your congregation's hearts to be witnesses and share the good news intentionally.

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Give life to the Movement Jesus Started!

“Churches today remain caught in patterns, paradigms, and assumptions inherited from a previous ecclesial era, struggling to imagine and embody a future that matches the changing realities of their mission. The model we inherited is a complex, resource-heavy institution that runs on professional clergy, large (expensive) buildings, sizeable budgets, and centralized programs. All that machinery puts church life out of reach for ordinary believers and sets a ceiling on how far the gospel can travel. Movements function like living organisms. They carry a simple, potent code that any genuine disciple of Jesus can copy and pass on, anywhere, using the resources already present among God's people. The urgency of our moment invites us to rediscover that code and build the church around it.”. This is Allan Hirsch’s statement, who writes extensively on discipleship, multiplication, institution, and movement. If you observe, all the powerful movements in the past had a simple system at its heart, one that ordinary people can pass from person to person.

Look at the life of Jesus and the way He built the Movement is remarkable: 

Jesus built a team from people with all walks of Life. Fishermen, businessmen, tax collector, etc. 

Jesus modelled the kingdom work. He just did not preach about a perfect structure that can be foundational to the institution, but demonstrated the only purpose i.e., to seek and save the lost. Luke records, “He was traveling from one town and village to another, preaching and telling the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him.” (Luke 8:1).

Jesus engaged the core leadership team for the holistic gospel work. “He appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, to send them out to preach” (Mark 3:14). And in Luke 9:1-2 “Summoning the Twelve, he gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. [2] Then he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”.

Jesus then sent the larger team, which can replicate the Church today. “After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and he sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go.”  (Luke 10:1). An institution can be an organized form of a movement, but it cannot replace the movement itself.

Unless you adopt Jesus’ movement style, you would not see the fire igniting the hearts of the people. The impact of a movement is significant. It will be visible in the following ways:

People catch the vision and do it with or without you. Let me highlight a passage in Mark 9:38-39 it is recorded that John noticed someone who was not part of the team yet was doing some great deeds, casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John states, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.”  “Don’t stop him,” said Jesus, “because there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name who can soon afterward speak evil of me.”  

People come forward to support the vision through their finances and in kind.

It is recorded in Luke 8:3 “Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others who were supporting them from their possessions.” You don’t have to try creatively selling your vision. Just ignite His mission, and the like-minded people will attach to you. We also notice how people offered their boat to be used as a platform. A boy came forward to share his meal. Someone offered the donkey. Someone gave his facility, the upper room, for meeting.

People died as martyrs for the sake of the Gospel. The disciples forfeited their lives for His sake and died as martyrs. Still, many are willing to risk their life for Jesus. 

The Church was born as a result of a movement, not an institution. Church became the byproduct of the movement building, not the other way around. Early church movements in Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica are great examples.

Can we give life to the movement Jesus initiated? Let us equip the believers to be witnesses and present a GO Lifestyle. One who is compelled to share the gospel daily, weekly, or on a monthly basis.

 

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Was it “Follow Me” or “Follow the Church”?

With digital revolution everything has become commodity today. It is a wild propaganda of us, what we do, and our ministry. Church advertisements imploring people to attend Sunday has become such a pressure for Pastors to measure their success and sustainability with the crowd attendance.

Following pastors, Church and leaders has become more important than following Jesus in its true sense.  Jesus’ call, “follow me” has long been replaced by follow me (pastor, leader, and this one so called celebrity pastor or minister), my Church, my ministries. Positive reviews and rating attracts believers to find the Church of their preference. Every Church and ministries get their vote to maintain their reputation based on the number of  likes.  Jesus’ call was completely different. Jesus was walking by the sea and said to Simon Peter, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). Follow me. I will make you become fishers of men. First He calls, then He reveals the outcome. The people who followed Him watched Him, learnt, practiced, got sent out, failed, got corrected, and eventually helped others follow Him. Please note, Jesus never told you to go to Church but gave the Great Commission to go into the world to make disciples and be a witness.  The outcome of going to Church is more important than going to the Church as a result of following Christ. 

Mark Goering who talks much about discipleship states what Churches see as measuring standard, ‘Here’s the scorecard most of us use instead. Attend. Join a small group. Serve in some capacity. Give sacrificially. Know your Bible. Get your kids involved in ministry. Take the classes. Volunteer. Some of that is good. But here’s the tension: where’s the disciple-making? You can be top notch in every one of those areas for forty years and never once have shared the gospel with someone, never helped a new believer grow, never taught someone else to obey Jesus, never shown anyone how to make disciples and reproduce. Not an accusation. Just a reality. Christians reproduce what they’re taught.’.

Mark further comments, ‘“Going to church” really does hijack the point of the church, which is habits and rhythms shared by followers of Jesus who live a lifestyle together.” There is a massive difference between going to a church and being the church. Church is more than a meeting. Not an event you attend. A life you practice together.  Be the Church, when the service is over. Because the word isn't changed by gathering alone. It changed lives that carry Jesus beyond the walls. So don't just attend the Church, Reflect it. Live it.

If you notice the Sunday morning church, there’s so much coded understanding that insiders already know what the newcomers don’t: when to sit, when to stand, when it’s okay to talk to people, when it isn’t. It’s obvious who doesn’t know it yet. Observe how the room communicates a person’s role. You walk in, get greeted for the experience you’re about to have, and sit in pews among rows of other pews facing a stage where someone has a microphone. That tells you, your job is to sit, listen and consume, and someone else’s job is to tell you what the Bible says. Some of them come away describing the whole thing as a concert, or a show. That becomes their entire experience for what church is most of the time.

Church is all about preparing you to “go” and if this not happening effectively then you need to rethink. There are Churches which has stagnated with an average number of 40, 60, 100 or 200 and maintain the number all their life. The funding is just enough to maintain its existence with bureaucratic structures. They are not worried much about growth through disciple-making process. Most of the pastors don’t exemplify the call for Great Commission. Hence, it’s never a priority for the members. 

The other category is the Mega Church. Although it never started as a Mega Church because their inception stories are very inspiring. At some point in their growth journey, the Pastor becomes a celebrity and the crowd is in awe of him, and he gets all the attention than God. The Mega Churches can have hundreds of great programs with less engagement. I heard a pastor say, Jesus did not have a fastest growing Church, He had the fastest shrinking Church. The big crowd followed Jesus from villages, towns and cities but you know the numbers drastically reduced with His Crucifixion and ascension. The true followers are those who are the disciple makers and goers.  Rich Villodos puts it beautifully, “If Jesus spent 8 hrs a day, every day, for 3 years with his disciples, he would have spent over 8,000 hours with them. And after all that time, they still had major gaps! 1 hour a week on Sunday will never change people. We need a life that abides in him, with the support of others.” Make your Church a movement. Don’t limit it to a religious institution. 

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Where is the Church, please?

The title’s question usually wants us to check with someone or start searching for the location of a physical church with the help of an address or GPS. This supposes the notion that church is usually looked upon as a structure or a denomination. It has usually been reduced to an institutional entity as it is an immovable asset and a sacred institution as a place of worship. Jesus meant the Church to be the people and the force. Where are the people and where is the force? We are mere Christians ignoring our primary responsibility. Yes, “Christians” a name used only three times in the Bible when compared to the word “Church” used 114 times and “disciples” used over 250 times.

We tend to evade our primary responsibility by passing off just as Christians. All we need to do is visit the Church on Sundays. When being a disciple and a Church, the two responsibilities entrusted by Christ Jesus, we are first to fill our personal space by finding people to share the gospel and then fill the Church facility. The person who has been brought into the knowledge of Jesus becomes His disciple and a disciple maker as commanded by Jesus while deliberating the Great Commission.

With this crucial requirement being ignored pastors and leaders end up being busy managing the church to keep it afloat and grossly falter in their duty of equipping the congregation in Christ’s mission and release them into the community. Stanley E Jones remarked, "Sitting in a church does not make a person a Christian any more than sitting in a hen house makes a person a hen.". Do not forget what the word Christian carries as referred to the people in Antioch, "... The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.". Acts 11:26 CSB. It is an actionable word, not just an identity.

William McKnight, Former CEO of 3M states this when referring to how organisational leaders are managing their employees, "If you put fences around people, you get sheep." And this is also true with Church Congregation who are protected and fenced all their lives. Mr. Grey keeps talking about Churches and comments, “they are so much stuck with programs that they have almost lost focus on the true mission Christ entrusted to us.”.

The Churches are rather focused internally with life enrichment and spiritual upliftment programs than holding its members responsible for the perishing souls. This isn’t just a problem for “traditional” churches—this is an issue for every church that has existed for ten years or more. People inside the church are high priority than reaching those outside. It’s completely understandable: Insiders pay the bills. In the fear of making them unhappy and losing them for good, Churches tend to hold on to “congregation-approved” programs even if they are unhealthy for their spiritual growth and outright disobedience to the Great Commission. As these interventions are more for survival than a well thought out strategy, they become redundant and show no progress.

Many churches have a mission statement. They know why they exist. They have vision. They know where they believe God has called their ministry to be in the future. What they don’t have is a strategy on how to see that vision get accomplished. Without a clearly defined strategy, churches stagnate without progress. They do the same programs with different names hoping it will help them move towards their vision. The outcome is that programs get added with no productive results. Blogs like these are ever resented because the truth hurts, therefore avoided. Every believer is a Church and until each Church member realizes his/her personal responsibility towards Christ’s mission, The Church building is misleading hoards of people to Christ-less eternity. Trevor Sheatz makes strong point when he refers to four things that cannot save our soul from hell and they are: 

Attending Church every week,

Being a moral person,

Doing good works for the poor,

Being raised in a Christian family 

Only faith in the finished work of Lord Jesus and obedience to Christ mission, the Great Commission.

 

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You Hypocrites!

The Bible records Jesus using this phrase to slam the pharisees and the scribes for their hypocrisy. At one time He quoted what Isaiah prophesized and He called the people, Hypocrites! Jesus said, ‘Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:’

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.”  Matthew 15:7-9.

How true today! Religiosity has seeped in, not only subtly but boldly. Being Christian has almost no implication to what people claim to be. Week after week people crowd the church to fulfill their duties, sing and dance to the music of the performances and leave empty. Life grinds with the same cycle of leading their lives in their own terms for the remaining six days with a set of goals confining to secure life for now and for the future. The priorities are mostly self. Christ’s mission and Church’s mission are unfulfilled and ignored. 

Today, for many, Church is merely a ritualistic obligation, and Sunday becomes the means where a little portion of their time and money is used to fulfill their church obligations. People attend Church week after week and act as if they understand it well but fail to live as they are the Church. I invite you to ponder over these questions? 

• Does the believer understand the purpose of his/her existence?
• Has the believer understood correctly the meaning and purpose of the Church?  
• Is Christ’s mission to the unreached a familiarity or a just a means for filling the Church treasury? 
• Does a believer repeatedly hear the call to reach the lost, from the pulpit or is it just a soothing sound, a lullaby to relax their tired minds with inspirations, encouragements and motivations?

Our engagement is the union with Christ, and it does not rest on us or even the church. The goal of union with Christ moves from each of us toward others in the formation of Christ’s new community, the church and an outward once again toward the world in mission as we seek to draw others into communion with God. To be united to Christ is to be sent into the world as the agents of the triune God, who gathers worshipers from the ends of the earth.  

John Piper while explaining the mission of the Church states, “The aim of all ministry and missions: To make God look great in salvation, and to make man glad in God.”  Timothy Keller states, “a Church should not simply have a missions department. It should wholly exist to be a mission.” Once you understand missions rightly, you may find that you are far more qualified and needed than you thought. 

Jesus stated, “I have other sheep. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” (John 10:16) Jesus was focused on bringing the other sheep and therefore He asserted “I must bring them also”. Today so much is spoken on so many things and more primarily about giving. And people are convinced too that they cannot go empty-handed while they go to Church (Deuteronomy 16:16). I have heard several time pastors lashing out in the congregation not to be misers while it comes to giving. And they add a note, that they are giving it to the Lord. But why the same weightage is not given for many who all their lives have come empty-handed with no souls? If the pulpit delivers ambiguity, then the outcome will be hypocrisy. 

John Piper rightly pointed out “everyone who believes on Jesus has eternal life. And everyone who doesn’t perishes.” Mission is urgent. Christ’s mission is our mission and if we do not understand this, we will knowingly or unknowingly start living a hypocritical life. Your mission is not entertainment but to make Christ known. Your mission is not drawing a crowd, but to make disciples. Christ must be the Church’s only attraction. As David Strain states, “Mission has to be at the heart of a healthy church because the church is the community of disciples united to Jesus. Union with Christ leads to community and results in mission to the glory of God.”

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Reflection, stronger than words!

 

The twelve disciples of Jesus were revolutionaries. All of them reflected Christ in the best possible way through which people found Christ. Then we learn how the disciples carried the gospel to different continents and countries until martyrdom became their destiny. The life of Jesus was such a strong influence among all who encountered Him that people were willing to reflect Christ in the best possible manner even in adverse scenarios. 

The gospel of Christ is so compelling that when truly experienced none could stop themselves from talking about it. As years passed by, now we hear Churches emphasizing much on Christian ethics and spiritual attributes without equipping them to be a disciple maker. Jesus called people to be a disciple (Mark 1:17), commanded to preach and make disciples (Matthew 28:19) and to be a witness of the gospel that transformed them (Acts 1:8). Somehow this is water-downed today by a ritualistic Sunday gathering with too many religious obligations in most cases. We preach heartwarming sermons making people feel better about themselves and make them disengaged towards Christ’s mission. What believers reflect now is more a title and a religious tag, “Christian” than a witness of the gospel. 

Francis DuBose beautifully puts this, “The Church does not create mission; mission creates the Church. In mission, the church has its identity and purpose.”. Studying about the life of Paul, throughout the epistles Apostle Paul emphasized on the need for the gospel presentation. In 1 Corinthians 1:23 he states, “We preach Christ crucified” and in Romans 1:14-16: "under obligation" to preach, declaring that he is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation. In Philippians 1:12-14: Paul explains that even his imprisonment has served to "advance the gospel". 2 Timothy 4:2: Paul’s overarching charge to Timothy is to "preach the word" in and out of season. In Ephesians 6:15 (ESV) “And, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” 2 Timothy 4:5 (ESV) “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” Philemon 1:6 (ESV) “And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” 

Paul who demonstrated the lifestyle of evangelism therefore states in Philippians 4:9, “Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you.”.  Paul became a role model. A man who had only one goal, to make Christ known to all. Questions for the believer, “Who is your pastor? Or who is your mentor? What is the most important thing you see him do or hear him say? Is your Pastor/leader/mentor exemplifying sharing the gospel?  If your answers to these questions do not culminate to reaching souls and saving souls in any case, then something is drastically wrong with the pastor and the Church. Informative sermons and bible teachings are great but if it is not culminating to gospel presentation and reaching the dying souls then it is time to rethink about your church itself. Paul had an audacity to challenge the people to "imitate Him" (1 Corinthians 11:1).

What else is your goal if it is not saving your unreached family members, friends or colleagues(Mark 5:19)? All your life building your career, making your living to eat and never be satisfied is such a deplorable life to lead.  No wonder Apostle Paul warns people by saying this, “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.” (Philippians 3:19). Empty words and mere inspirational speech you can get from any platform, including books. What you need to do is be desperate to reach souls. Jesus’ goal was to seek and save the lost, not to make the kind of Church we define today. The reflection of a lifestyle of evangelism should be stronger than words and worth imitating.

 

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The Misinterpreted image of Evangelism!

The image of evangelism may look unappealing and uninteresting due to the way it has been projected and interpreted by mission organizations, Church leaders and Church denominations across the world, over the ages. Evangelism is usually associated with the word missionary, often portrayed as someone who left everything and goes to a far town or village or to the most difficult places and survives against every odd with a little or no support. Well, this is a reality for many. In fact, all the disciples left everything (Matthew 19:27) and followed Christ, and later travelled to different continents and were martyred for the sake of their faith. There are innumerable stories in reference to the early missionaries who left their homes and belongings to follow their calling and go to the places the Lord had showed them. The early stories of missionaries are daunting because it was filled with risks and challenges but were yet reformative, transformational and impactful beyond imagination. 

Today, the cases can be slightly different. There are still many who follow their calling and go to places as missionaries. But there are also many who are sent by Churches and organizations to a place which they call it  as mission field. Many stories of such missionaries can be painful to hear though it has also encouraging stories of life transformation. The support in many cases is very little but it is filled with prayer promises.

Tripp Almon while commenting on evangelism gives several images of what usually one assumes of evangelism. “A stranger with a megaphone yelling at passerby. An awkward conversation that feels like a relational bait-and-switch. A scripted presentation that somehow turns a human being into a project. Or maybe a guilt-laden church announcement that ends with, “we just need to do better.” If that’s what evangelism is, it’s no wonder so many Christians quietly avoid it.” The problem with these pictures isn’t simply that they’re uncomfortable. It’s that they detach evangelism from discipleship-something Jesus never did. Evangelism isn’t just an activity for certain gifted people’ it’s the natural overflow of a life lived in alignment with reality. It’s a lifestyle.

Tripp further makes a brilliant point by saying this, “when Jesus gives what we call the Great Commission, he isn’t handling his followers as a marketing strategy or a Church growth program. He is describing a way of life. The command to “make disciples” is not a call to manufacture converts and move on. It’s an invitation to form people who learn not just information about Jesus but how to live in relationship with him.”

If you are a Christian, you are already sent. You already have a mission field. It includes your, friends, roommates, classmates, coworkers, neighbors and family members. Some of them follow Jesus some don’t. The posture toward all of them is fundamentally the same: faithful presence, communication, clarify, love and encourage. Today, evangelism has become an organization, mission entity, a movement talking about growth, numbers and sadly in many cases, a business enterprise. Someone put this in the paper while narrating a testimony of commitment, “souls are not statistics.”. You don’t do this to generate numbers; evangelism is a lifestyle. 

The gospel writers record every single person who encountered Jesus were unstoppable and revolutionaries. Apostles Peter and John boldly stated when summoned before authorities to be warned not to speak about Jesus, made this statement, “for we unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”. Today it is different. We hardly share Jesus to anyone. Christian’s obligation begins and ends with the Church. People want to be happy at all costs and Church has become a means in many cases. Encountering Christ is powerful that it propels you to places and people to speak the good news. Evangelism is not the way it is usually portrayed as I have narrated in this article. It is not only reaching out with a heart of compassion to someone who is struggling to make ends meet, battling with a prolonged illness, loss of job, relationship issues, to help them find hope in Christ but also requires you to reach out to ones who think their money and luxury are Gods and give them the hope beyond it. 

Evangelism is a blend of your transformation story and the story of His grace, Christ forgiveness and the hope of eternity. If this truth has made an impact in your life, then don’t stop talking about it. It is recorded, Acts 18:9“The Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent. You can’t force yourself to speak about Christ, you need to be truly transformed and it becomes unstoppable. Evangelism is the way of life and a Lifestyle.

 

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