Messiah Over Mission

In religious circles, it has been said that "We determine our buildings and then our buildings determine us."  The idea is that we determine what we want in a church building or facilities and once we build it, what we do is determined by what is left after paying the mortgage, utilities, maintenance and repairs.

In order to much more than to keep up the building and hire a preacher, we have to focus on filling the building with committed contributors.  Our focus become much less Kingdom advancement and more congregational enrichment.  Out thoughts shift from Kingdom building to church growth.

A mission is begun to help the poor or reach out to the broken.  It begins modestly, just doing the mission work itself until it is determined that there is a need for facilities and infrastructure.  From then on, a lion's share of energy and effort is spent on raising funds and raising buildings.

A television ministry is launched to reach the masses but at some point the  masses are being reached just to support the television ministry and the televangelist's new lifestyle.  The message of the Gospel becomes a message of giving to the ministry and the new theology becomes giving to support the ministry.

My point is that too  often our mission becomes that of buildings and budgets.   Our relationship with the lender becomes more intricable than our relation with the Lord.  Infrastructure becomes more vital than Indwelling.  Our mission efforts of building attendance in order to attend to our buildings takes over the Messiah's missions to build relationships.

Jesus did not come so that we could build missions or ministries or meeting halls, he came to build bridges between mankind (us) and the Messiah (himself).  He came "to seek and to save the lost" (Lk 19:10).  The mission we imagine of building things here on earth is not the mission of the Messiah who came to build a path between heaven and earth.  The point was never to be what we could do but rather our need and the need of others for him.  It was always Messiah over mission.

So, what do we do with this truth?  We focus on building our relationship with the Messiah not on erecting building or building up missions or ministries.  Whatever facilities or efforts that may come out of that pursuit are fine but they must never be our main focus.  Personal relationship with the Lord must be job one.  Being personally prepared to share that relationship with others is next in line.  Other stuff comes after and further down the ladder.

Listen to this simple outline for faithfulness offered by the apostle Peter: "in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Pet 3:15).  1. Have Christ in your heart and 2. Share what's in your heart.  The rest comes further down the line but always the Messiah comes first.  Jus' Say'n.