Acts 27: 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.
What is the main concern of our churches today - to stop losing members or to start saving souls?
That’s the challenge that most mainstream denominational congregations are currently facing. So many people are giving up the idea of belonging to institutionalized churches that local congregations are beginning to falter and struggle to survive. I think I read somewhere that in the USA alone, 400 churches close each month whilst only 100 new ones are established. If that is the case, then around about 2025 most mainline denominations are going to have to merge together in order to get through to 2050. Similarily, by the end of this century, denominationalism will have run its course in the Reformed Movement. The ship that we’re holding together will have sunk; but what about the souls of those on board? Will they have been lost too?
If we are so busy keeping the ship afloat and struggling against the storm of secularism, then we will begin to fail and rightly so. We will have forgotten the reason why churches were established and lost the purpose of what we do for God’s Kingdom. We exist to bring others to Christ – everything else is merely coincidental. In the end, it’s not about how big the boat is or how long it has been kept afloat. In the end, the eternal success of our churches will be measured by how many souls were brought to Christ in our individual congregational histories.
So the question we all need to ask of our churches today is this: are we solely struggling to individually survive or are we intentionally seeking the souls that need to be saved?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, in the midst of our congregational struggles to survive, we seem to have forgotten who we are and to whom we belong. Restore to the hearts of our churches the initial purpose for our existence: to be soul searchers and to lead others to You alone. Forgive us for failing to remember this primary and most crucial task of the church. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.
John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.
Today’s image is one of John’s latest drawings. It is called “Autumn Garden.” If you would like to view a larger version of the print, please visit the following link: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/5021960250_bc0caf559c_b.jpg
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