Church Institution Part-3

 

In my last blog we were seeing why Jesus did not choose to centralize institutionalizing of the Church. You can click HERE in case you missed to read the last blog. Kindly stay with me as I conclude on this topic. 

If you carefully observe you will notice that Jesus constantly reiterated the purpose of His coming. The purpose of Jesus was straight and direct. It says, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10. In order this to happen He had to go to all places. After being in a particular place sharing about the Kingdom of God and showing who the Messiah is, Jesus’ next destination was always the next village, the next town where they don’t know about the Messiah.  In Mark 1:35-37 it talks about Jesus going to a deserted place early in the morning and was praying. But by then the crowd found the way to His place, looking for Him. I guess the disciples were constantly living in excitement to have large crowds waiting to hear Jesus and to be ministered. In Verse 36 it says, Simon and his companions searched for him, and when they found him, they said “Everyone is looking for you.” Verse 37 And he said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighbouring villages so that I may preach there too. That is why I have come”.

Jesus reiterates the purpose of His coming again and again. I guess Jesus was not interested to give the same message in a new package to the same crowd day after day or week after week. That will sound churchianity, where people would visit the Church, every week get excited and go back to never share the gospel. In Matthew 8:18 Again we notice this happening, “When Jesus saw a large crowd around him, he gave orders to go to the other side of the sea.” Jesus knew the crowds will always be there but then once He ministered in a particular place Jesus preferred to go the next place where He is still unfamiliar.

Fellowship with the believers on a weekly basis is a great idea but then people come together to comfort each other, love each other, help each other and then they are gone. In many cases even this is not a reality. Why do we say the Church is the only hope for the dying world when all we have is only Christian brothers and sisters surrounded. Today, the Churches are becoming a good moral school where constantly the members are taught how to live good life, morally teaching them how to love one another, and so many how to's... but never how to share the gospel and holding individuals accountable on the responsibility of sharing the gospel.

Today, the Church in many cases is nothing more than a structure or a building facility and sadly even that in most cases mired in property disputes. The institutionalization Church comes in various types of offering. Basically, money takes the top priority. And we show to people that if they pay more offering, more tithes, they will receive more blessings.

Most of the people who started with a great passion to reach out to people with the gospel soon settled with this concept of Church. And then with the sustainable income source from the people the Church culminates to an institution under a particular denominational bracket. Thereafter, the rest of their lives pastors with the floating numbers keep managing the crowd so that they are faithful to their version of Church. All survive except the Christ mission. Paul Washer puts this thought brilliantly, “The ministry has become so driven by business and entertainment that many of the men who now stand behind pulpits would do a better as corporate heads on Wall Street or entertainers in Hollywood.”

Don't mistake me that I am saying Church buildings are unnecessary. What am I questioning, why the purpose of the Church today has become so murky? Why aren't our congregation who are supposed to be teachers, speakers by now still need milk? (Hebrew 5:14)

We want to think and believe Church buildings attract people to hear the gospel. If this was true Jesus would have at the foremost made a connection and asked His converts to attend the existing temple with its grandeur. Instead, He was seen calling people to follow Him. Soon we learn Jesus prophesized the demolition of the temple. Matthew 24:2 “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.”. Jesus replaced the place with a movement.

Even in the Old Testament the Lord showed Prophet Isaiah an important thing. Prophet Isaiah apprises what the Lord said to him with great power.  Isaiah 8:13-14 “You are to regard only the Lord of Armies as holy. Only he should be feared only he should be held in awe. He will be a SANCTUARY; . . .”  Currently, the Church space has taken all the credibility. Christians respect church buildings more than Jesus and His mission. The church isn’t a building to be maintained, it’s a people to be mobilized. Let us not forget that all Christ’s disciples and His followers took the risk of going to all parts of the world and proclaim about the resurrected Jesus and being martyred for their faith. They wanted others to experience what they have found. Think about it! Let me leave with the thought by Leonard Ravenhill, "the world is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity.”.

  

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