Jesus is Lord over creation, but you have to exercise your will to move it out of the way so He can be Lord over your life.
To help our faith and relationship with Christ and others to grow, and for Him to work in our lives, especially to touch others, we also have to be willing to trust and obey Christ as Lord over all things–including our lives.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5: 20
If you have nothing relevant or appropriate to offer your people and you are not hospitable to them, you are producing a failing church.
Even if you have numbers, if you are not centered on Christ, you are in trouble and you are not succeeding for Him. We can change our worship format, make our parking lots bigger, and make our programs more relevant, trying to be a better WHO. Our “who” is that we are in Him—who we are in Christ; we are Christians by His love. But, what about changing it to HOW—to change how we are, how we behave, how we treat one another, how we are loving, how we care, how we learn, and how we grow in Christ.
The big how is that we know and then model Christ as a reality, that Jesus Christ really is in our lives. We are learning, experiencing, and living in and for Him! By really and truly being His ambassadors and allowing His Spirit to sustain and use us, we can be used to turn others toward Christ.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5: 21
Remember: real church growth is in the spiritual, not just numerical!
The key to unlock the growth barriers is opened yourself to the Lordship of Christ, to flow into contentment in your worship and prayer time. Sometimes that is all we can do, but it is not a last resort it is our front line and most important defense. Jesus is to be our preparation for the weathering of a storm to building a church. He will help you build your relationship with Himself so your faith, confidence and courage grow and be the inspire to those you lead. Then you will be prepared in those storms and crises of life and church life as well as your growth challenges, these will make you stronger and help you help others through them too. When we fully learn to trust, then we can obey and it will build our confidence so we will sail across those storm tossed seas of church life in confidence as Jesus Christ is there beside us manning the helm!
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