The "One Minister Church" Part 2

In these days of  Pastors leading the Church in place of The Holy Spirit we can see personal agendas and fears as major contributing factors to the failure of the church in general. Although Pastors pray about direction for their churches unfortunately their vulnerability is their own lack of "Sanctification" and therefore they can hear their flesh rather than God. Also by endeavoring to lead the congregation in place of The Holy Spirit, and the congregation relying on them, then the congregation remain as babies and miss out on being led and taught by God Himself and they do not have intimacy with Him. This also keeps the Pastor as the most important go to person, an unhealthy dependence. A place of power and influence over others that they simply should not have.
What then are some of these strongholds within leaderships? Success is a big one! In the world today to be successful seems to be very important and if you are not successful then you are put down or so it seems.(Unfortunately there can also be an ego factor) So how does a Pastor show that he is successful? By growing the size of his congregation? How can he go about doing this? Well he can teach the congregation that they are "Saved" and that now they are to be serving God and that this is what God expects from them. This is twisted! (God would like us to come to a place of "Sanctification" where we are useful for Him, but it is not an obligation but a privilege to serve Him.) What kind of service then can we expect that a Pastor might impose on his people? Anything that leads to fulfilling his agendas! Evangelism, going out to make disciples to grow the church population. (Sending out people who do not know God in the power of themselves is not a good formula for attracting more members, so they fail or they attract people for a while.) Of course evangelism is biblical but is supposed to be in God's timing and in the power of His Spirit. So why is God not growing His church in general? I believe that God does not want bring more people into a church that is misleading, only that they should eventually walk away and potentially destroy their hopes of salvation.
What fears can control Pastors? Job security? Secure income? How many times is there a message about the lack of giving by the congregation in a church gathering? Is that about Godliness or about taking care of self? (Maybe a mixture of both) Also growing the congregation through evangelism may lead to greater income for the church and financial security for the paid Pastors. 

ACTS 2 : 38-45
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

A Vital Church Grows

40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

As you can see the disciples were converted in The Power of The Holy Spirit and no one needed to teach them to give, but they sold their possessions and gave to one another so that no one was in need.

As I have said in my other posts "sanctification" should be the focus of today's church. Being reconciled to God, being made Holy in the power of The Holy Spirit. Pastors can lead the way by handing back their congregations to God and surrendering themselves to Him. By asking God to correct them and by teaching their congregations to approach God in the same way. Correction is what is missing and it seems that not many people in this world or the church in general want to be corrected. This seems foolish if you think about it, because, if you are getting it wrong but do not want to be corrected then that would mean that you do not want to get it right and that pride is your problem. "God gives Grace to the humble but resists the proud." Therefore you will remain in your failure if you do not surrender to God to be corrected by The Holy Spirit. True success will never come in man's own power.

Zechariah 4 : 6
So he answered and said to me:
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

TRUE SALVATION EXPLAINED

You can run but you can not hide.

Authority 2