Good church, the goal?

A wall in our church has several values statements hung on the wall:

Ridiculously generous - We generously pour out all that we have been given.

Irrational in honoring - We give and lead with honor.

Real. Raw. Authentic - We embrace and celebrate who God has called us to be.

Radically relational - We have a radical commitment to relationship.

Always hungry - We have a relentless hunger for more of God.

"For the city." (This is derived from Jeremiah 29:7)

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As I thought about these things I realized that they are not goals, they are actually avenues for how the Father might work out his purposes. These things are not the destination, they should take us somewhere.

Are we confusing the means with the goal?

Churches do a lot of things, and probably would attach great importance to the following activities:

• ​Excellent worship
• ​Burdened prayer
• ​Anointed sermons
• ​Spirit-enlightened study
• ​Selfless serving

Churches might view these as goals. Other goals might be, having a good Sunday service, or a big prayer meeting, or maybe a big donation to a food kitchen. 

But all of them are the means, not the goal. 

The Big Question

Here it is: What is the goal?  If we accept that we sometimes have mistaken the means for the goal, we would want to discover what the goal is, and then find out how God might work through the means in order to accomplish His goal.

But churches who mistake the means for the goal will not be able to consider this. They lack the vision to see the goal, and make church activities into goals. Yes, they might have a vision statement, or even principles like the above picture describes. But they will be stagnant. 

They might have incredible Sunday services. They might be growing and planting churches. It may even be that the Holy Spirit clearly moves with healing or deliverance. People might even be getting saved.

But they are ultimately lifeless.  

Re. 3:1 ...you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

Adélós

How does this happen? How can a vibrant, growing church be dead? Well, it has no direction or the wrong direction. It pursues no goal, or the wrong goal. It has no vision or the wrong vision. It has been taken captive by empty principles (Col 2:8) and has lost connection with the Head (Col. 2:19). 

A headless body can be summed up by the somewhat gruesome image of a chicken with its head cut off. The headless body runs around with no direction from the now-severed head. Paul writes:

1 Cor 9:26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly...

"Aimlessly:"(adélós) - actions or situations that are not clear or are done without a definite aim or purpose.

For those who have lost connection with the head, Paul advises us to fix our hearts and minds on things above (Col. 3:1-2). 

We can't be adélós. 

The Big Answer

It weighs on me. What is the reason we do this thing called church? My knee jerk answer is Kingdom. All this is for the prospering of the Kingdom and the glory of the King. 

But my second thought is better. The goal is Jesus receiving His inheritance.

Paul prayed for the Ephesian church, that they may know

• the hope to which he has called them,
• the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and 
• his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ep. 1:18-19)

The Father's purpose has always been for His Son to receive those for whom He died. Of all the things the Son might inherit, we are glorious to Him. 

Having good church cannot be the goal. Having a healthy church is not the objective. The church isn't the purpose, it's the means to accomplish the purpose. The purpose is for Jesus to receive what the Father promised Him.

I'll need to let that percolate. 

Father, open our eyes. Give us revelation. Allow us to conceive new understanding, new thinking, to more clearly understand your purpose for the Church.