what are we building?

Interesting thought, i was on twitter earlier this evening and saw this quote:

'We do not start churches to make disciples. We must make disciples, so that churches will start'

I am a big believer of the Church, and i have believed for a long time that the Church is Gods vehicle for evangelism. If you have read any of my earlier thoughts on here, you will know that i think that the Church is created more for those who aren't in it, than are.

I remember when Joel had started to be a little disobedient. He decided that he wasn't going to do as he was told, and was just going to do what he wanted to do. With this in mind he decided to rip his big sister's colouring book, while she was using it. This obviously didn't go down well with Amy and when Joel decided he wasn't going to say sorry, I put him on the naughty step (good thinking super nanny). In the end it was about me making Joel say sorry rather than him saying sorry for the right reason. It was the end product, rather than the process, that was what i was looking for. and i realise that it is one of my many faults as a dad is that i look at my kids and i expect them to do the right thin without understanding why they should do it.

I think sometimes our focus is the church rather than disciples. And the problem with that is that Christianity , our faith, becomes about organisations and not about people. The Kingdom of God becomes about geography and not about peoples hearts. This was the problem when Jesus came on the scene. Jews were expecting the Messiah was going to come and defeat the roman empire with the sword, but Jesus was more concerned with changing peoples hearts. There are times when you see Churches and organisations just trying to do anything to stay alive, their office, their building becomes their God, and the impact they have becomes less and less, because what they are about is about staying above water.

I pray more than ever that we (NYfC) do not spend more time in an office, doing admin, management and all the other peripherals, than we doing being and sharing Jesus to young people we work with.

Let us focus on what we are called to do, 'to go into the world and make disciples' and then we will see Churches grow as a bi product and we would really see God's kingdom grow.