Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Church or Kingdom

The Church gets into trouble whenever it thinks it’s in the church business rather than the Kingdom business.

Church people are concerned with church activities and religious behavior. Kingdom people are concerned with kingdom activities - all human behavior visible and invisible.

Kingdom people see human affairs as saturated with spiritual meaning and kingdom significance.

Kingdom people seek first the kingdom of God and its justice. Church people often put church work above concerns for justice, mercy and truth.

Church people think about how to get people into the church. Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world.

Church people worry that the world might change the church. Kingdom people work to see that the church changes the world.

When people put the church ahead of the kingdom, they settle for the status quo and their own kind of people. When they catch a vision of the kingdom of God, their sights shift outside the walls of the church to the lost and the needy; they see the life and work of the church from the perspective of the kingdom.

If the church has one great need it is this: To be set free for the kingdom of God.

1 comment:

Josh Peters said...

agreed. and since its past my bed time that's all you're getting.