Paul's Passing Thoughts

Notice: it is not, I repeat, NOT the goal of this post to criticize the following brother for what he posted on Facebook. I’m just posing a question. Is that ok?

Nevertheless, here is the post:

“At the beginning of last year, I set up 30 chairs in our youth room and started praying that God would bring in the young people that were supposed to be a part of Dunamis Youth. I told our 10 faithful youth to start praying for God to fill the seats. Tonight, at 7:10, a young man, who came late because of basketball practice came in and sat down in the last empty seat!! Praise God, I’m gonna go set up more seats!”

Per the usual, because it sounds good (the modern-day Good Churchkeeping seal of approval), the following comments ensued preceded by revealed forethought demonstrated by their length:

huge PRAISE! great job!

God is good

Awesome! I hope you have so many you have to build a new building! Keep doing what your doing man.

WTG Matt!!

Woohoo!!!

That gave me chills!!!! That is awesome!!!!

Praise God!

I think us “dancers” may have to find more room and a new spot to stand at(: haha

WONDERFUL!!!

That is wonderful!!!

That is just AWESOME Matt!! GOD IS GREAT!!

Good thing Matt! More empty seats & more prayers! God is good!

Matt!! Here is YOUR Word for the day!! (Maybe, really, for the rest f your life!) 1 Cor. 1:6!!!

thats wonderful MAtt! when do you meet?

The jury of fourteen is in with their judgment (sorry about slipping with the no-no word) verdict: “God did it.”  Oh really? How do we know that? Why exactly would God send them? Is it God who fills the 25,000 seat auditorium at Joel Osteen’s church? Some say “yes,” others would say “no.” How do we know? Do we know positively that God filled those chairs? And if He didn’t, is it alright to make such assumptions because they’re feel-good assumptions? Does positive + feel-good = truth?

Ok, let’s assume God sent them. Why would he? I didn’t ask the brother why he thought God would; he may have a very good reason, but the first part of this story is far too indicative of our church culture:

Q: Why would God send them?

A: Like, because of the gospel dude.

Q: What’s the gospel?

A: Like, you know, what Jesus did for us man.

Q: So, is that all you are going to teach?

A: Duuuuude, of course not!

Q: So what are you going to teach?

A: Dude, I have it all planned out. We are going to start by teaching through “Crazy

Love” written by the Chanster.

Q: Then what?

A: Dunno dude, depends on the next biggest gig to come out man.

All too often, church strategy can be summed up by one goal: get more people here to talk about Jesus. And that usually entails talking about what other people say about Jesus, not anything derived from deep study by local church leaders.

In fact, “strategy” sounds really unspiritual, no? That could be why most local churches really don’t have a clue as to why they are here and what they are doing. But it’s not complicated. Christ’s mandate to the church is not, “get people saved.” His mandate to the church is “make disciples.” Christ doesn’t want a bunch of saved people—He wants disciples. Christ is savior. True. He is also Lord. Equally true. And the goal is to have disciples whose lives are “built on a rock” by “[hearing] these words of mine and [putting] them into practice.” That’s a biblical goal: teaching disciples how to put the full counsel of God into practice so we have lives built on a rock. Lives that also preach the gospel.  Biblical thinking, biblical praying, and biblical doing. All of God’s counsel, and ALL of God’s  people. Every moment of church life should be working towards doing that as much as possible. And I contend that it takes planning, good communication, and knowing why we are here and what we are doing.

Fill chairs. Sure. But why?

paul