Back on the mission

We are too easy on ourselves.  We constantly look at others and judge, yet look at ourselves and make excuses. Just look this week, with Anthony Mundine in the ring, Craig Thompson's arrest, the ongoing Lance Armstrong saga and even simply that Becks has chosen to move to Paris instead of Perth we line up and make judgement calls about each one.  Now some of these people have most definitely made bad decisions even illegal ones.  But day to day I am sure we make similar ones ourselves, it's just that no one hears about them.  Mundine get's himself in trouble because of his ego, his pride causes such stark obnoxiousness, Thompson and Armstrong were greedy, and you know what... we are too... we feed our egos and our greed just as much as the next person. (and who cares where Becks lives).

As a church we need to be real with ourselves.  Jesus was never slow in pointing out issues with the religious organisation - and sometimes I wish I had the courage to do so more poignantly as well.  Mark Driscoll in his book Doctrine writes this about the church.

The church obeys the Great Commission to evangelize and make disciples.  The church is an evangelistic community where the gospel of Jesus is constantly made visible through its proclamation of the gospel, the witness of the members' lives, and its Spirit-empowered life of live.  From the first day, "the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved" because they took Jesus' command seriously; "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

The church is to be an evangelistic people on mission in the world, passionate to see lost people meet Jesus Christ as Savior, God, and Lord.  Any church submitting to the Holy Spirit and obedient to Scripture wants fewer divorces, addictions, thefts, and abuses and knows the only way to see that happen is to make more disciples.  The church loves people and is continually and painfully aware of the devastation that is wrought in this life and in the life to come for those who are not reconciled to God.  Therefore, while not imposing religion on anyone, the church of Jesus Christ is to constantly be proposing reconciliation with God to everyone.

Before we point fingers at the like of Mundine, Thompson and Armstrong we need to take stock of how we are living up to the mission and object of our faith.  Are we following Jesus' commands? In Deception Bay alone we have not even half the Religious Education teachers we need to cover the three primary schools.  One person is teaching eight classes a week to attempt to see the junior grades covered, and she is worked to exhaustion.  In our church of over 100, we struggle to get more than four leaders to any of the children or youth ministries... Kids Club, Youth Group, Kids Time are all floundering because no one puts their hand up to help.   When you add the other churches in the area we should have more than enough people to cover the R.E teaching, plus within dBay Baptist we have more than enough to cover every one of our ministries.  So why are we lacking?

Unfortunately the people still reading at this stage are probably those who are committed enough to actually help out, but I just wish we are a Church (worldwide) would see that the Gospel is the only answer to the world's problems, and Christ followers are the only people who can deliver the Gospel.  We need to stop focusing on ourselves and get back to the mission the Church was called to.  When we see public figures fall, maybe instead of pointing the finger and feeling good about ourselves, we should see the same flaws in us and turn to Jesus in repentance... asking Him to renew the passion for his mission in our hearts and show us how we can forward His Gospel once again.