What do you do if you feel your church is not making an impact in your town? Does your church no longer pull in the masses? Has it been a while since someone has joined your church? When was the last time someone was saved at your church? If these conditions are found at your church and you feel they should change, what should your church do in order to change this?
Many have turned to the church growth movement for answers. Now all of us should want to see our churches grow, but what are you willing to do, in order to see this come about? The church growth movement is driven by numbers. The more that attends their church, the better they view their church. They will stop at nothing to get people in church. If they have higher numbers, to them this means they have success. If it takes clowns running up and down the parking lot of the church and jumping through flaming hoops of fire, to get more in church, then we must do what is neccessary to get people in.
How do you view success in your church? How should the church view its role in the Kingdom of God? We are to tell others of Christ, that is a given we all agree with. Are we also to care about the size of our church? Are the bigger churches better churches because it is clear they are blessed with numbers? How did they get those numbers?
Jesus prayed for the Church before he went to the cross. We can learn a few things when we read this prayer. Now think about this prayer this way. This will be the last prayer that Jesus will pray to the Father on behalf of His people before the cross. When you read the prayer you see a love like no other love for His people. Just days later this small group becomes the church of Jesus Christ.
The word that dominates Christ's prayer in John 17 more than any word is glory. In the opening section Jesus prays that He might be glorified by the Father just as he has glorified God by completing His work on earth, revealing the Father to those whom God had given Him:
1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
In the next section, Jesus claims that "glory has come to me through them"
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
This glory comes to Christ as His disciples believed on him by them having begun to live for him. Toward the end of this passage He prays He has "given them the glory that you gave me"
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Christ then adds..
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
This is a very important emphasis, because it means that the goal the church is not to be a numerical success (or any other kind of “success") but glorifying God by whatever means God might choose it.
To glorify God means to make Him known in all his glorious attributes. Jesus did this for the disciples and would do it even more completely by His death on the cross for sin. We see God's sovereignty at the cross in the way the death of Jesus was planned, promised and then achieved, without the slightest departure from the Old Testament prophecies. We see God's justice in sin actually being punished. A just God must punish sin, therefore the death of the Lamb had to take place. We also see God's righteousness at the cross, for only Jesus, the righteous one, could pay sin's penalty. All of these aspects of Christ death brought glory to God.
Carrying that theme over to ourselves, we ask how the people of God are to glorify him. We cannot die for sin, of course. Only Jesus could do that. But we can glorify God by allowing his character to be developed and seen in us, and by obeying him in every area of our lives. In Ephesians the apostle Paul writes of one aspect of God's character, His wisdom, being demonstrated by the church.
Eph 3:10,11
10To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
11According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
With this in mind we must ask, how then do we show this wisdom of God to the world? What if we do our best in showing that wisdom to the world, and they reject it. This rejection comes more often in these days.
What can we do when people reject God? Do we then make God fun for them? Do we reinvent God into a cool rock star? Do we stop talking about things that may scare others? Things like Hell and sin, should they be removed from church, even though they are found in the Bible? Should we only talk about God’s love? Would this make people believe and stop rejecting Him? This surely is not the right way to share the gospel. It would seem that those that follow such paths are ashamed of God.
Jesus tells us in His prayer the right way to share this wisdom.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
God gave us the Word, we need only to preach it not hide from it. This includes subjects such as Hell and sin. Notice also, the world will hate you because of this. Do not change the church, so that the world loves the church. This type of change brings no glory to God. I also think this speaks of holy living. We are called out from the world, and are not to be as the world.
Also in verse 17..
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
The Church is to preach the truth, not hide from the truth.
Verse 18…
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
The Church is to go into the world, not bring the world into the church.
I want you to notice one more verse in this passage. Christ says..
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Notice that this prayer is not for the world. Now why is that? This passage shows how much He loves the church. They love Him and He loves and keeps them.
So what are we to do if people reject God?
We should keep in the word and preach it fully being true to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not to change so that the world loves us, for if the world loves us, we are doing something wrong.
It is God that saves and not man and this is what brings glory to God. If we do as Christ prayed above, we have done all we can do, other than pray.
What are we to do?
Pray for them, but don't change the message and don't hide them from the truth.