mgpcpastor's blog

The goal of the local church is to struggle with what Jesus has told us to do, not settle for succeeding in that which Jesus hasn’t told us to do.

From Tim Brister:

This is where we need to be brutally honest with ourselves. As a church, are we hitting the target? Are we making disciples of Jesus? More pointedly, are we making disciples who make disciples of Jesus? The sobering fact is that I don’t know of a single church who does not struggle with this. The difference is there are those who want to grow through their struggles while there are others who, unfortunately, are happy to substitute some other target other than the Great Commission that is easier to hit. A proper handling, or stewardship, of the struggle means that we deal honestly with our challenges that recognize our dependence on Christ and our determination to keep the main thing the main thing, even when we are not that great at it.

In other words, it is far worse to succeed in what Jesus doesn’t care about than to struggle with what He has commissioned us to do. If we are a church who loves Jesus, then we will not allow inconsequential successes to tempt us to stray away from the mission He has entrusted us to accomplish. We ought to be a people who know the target, aim for it, and when we miss, don’t look for an easier target but resolve to learn from Jesus and lean on Jesus to be the people He has called us to be.

Read the whole post.