Every other encounter we have is hardly original. Duplicity is the word that
describes this age, including relationships. Fakeness is rampant that we are
lost in it. We all wish that people at some point just present themselves as
they are during the encounter with each other. We are going to end this year
soon. Year after year passes by, but are we seriously intentional to live
the original image of God with divine nature and characteristics of God or just
making our way with our list of agendas, programs and events that keeps our
spirits high and satisfying, because we have nothing to lose.
Working with so many Church
leaders and getting close to understand their ministry and their future of
their ministry is a greatest privilege and a responsibility God has given to
SHEFA ministries. As we develop Ministry blueprint and a roadmap for Churches
and organization to follow, some have taken their (church) plan seriously and
started working towards it meticulously and witnessing significant measurable
results during the course of their journey. Some are not able to do much
on it merely because there are already so many things on their list which
leaves them overwhelmed. Some are, as I usually say, “Victim of
emergencies”.
Someone who is an ardent visitor
in a particular Church made this statement which made me melancholic, “I
don’t want to be entertained at Church, I want to encounter God”. Let’s
not forget there are many who visit the church with brokenness, pain and with a
deep desire longing to be comforted by God’s word, but return home disappointed.
Do we even realize it? I am reminded of the passage where some Greeks who were
going to worship at the feast, visited Philip and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”.(John 12:22) There is a deep longing in people to encounter
God but the question is, are we able to present Christ correctly? Be watchful,
not to douse people’s longing with activities that are irrelevant to the
vision and goals of the Church.
How serious are we? How organic
is our worship? The most heart rending statement I heard by a lay
person commenting on a Church leader / Pastor in one of the major programs is
this, "The Pastor’s and the Church leadership don’t care about
structured sustainable program that is aligned with the vision and mission of Church
because they have nothing to lose". There are many Churches instead
of modelling the vibrant early Church are making things so comfortable and
leaving the people unprepared. Josh Buice puts it point blank, “Dear Pastors, tomorrow people will gather before the
pulpit to hear the glories of His word expounded. You can’t afford to speculate
nor can you afford to entertain. Lastly, your calling demands that you avoid
veiling truth in mystery when God has unveiled it in his
word.". Preach and minister sincerely and with a burden.
Can we seriously retrospect as we
come to the end of this year and see if we still hold on to the dual image,
camaflouging our way through? Or we replicate the true image of Christ. Fight
against dualism, superficiality, form of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5) and be original
You can follow on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment