Friday, April 27, 2007
Thoughts on Church planting 3
I have one more interesting article concerning the topic of organizing local believers or church planting. This one is by Paul Vieira and you can read it here. According to Vieira the tabernacle is a blueprint of God’s house, Jesus is the prototype, and the church, the people of God, are the final image of God’s dream house.
The two things I wrote above (that the church is God’s people, not buildings, and that we need to carry the message of Jesus inside of us) should help us take most obstacles, offenses and stumbling blocks out of people’s way. The next step then is helping people see Jesus and hear his message of the kingdom so that they can trip over and fall on the Rock that makes people broken, before the same falls on them and crushes them.
You may have heard of some of the keys God used to unlock the hearts and minds of people before. Don Richardson’s “Peace Child” or “Eternity in their Hearts” or Bruce Olson’s “Bruchko” are some great examples. It seems that God has a special key for each people group. The passage from Matthew: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven...” comes to mind. None of these keys came easily or quickly or without cost, but the final result was far beyond what human effort alone could accomplish.
The question on my mind is, “What is the key that opens the lock that holds the Czechs captive?” Jesus said that those who seek will find. If we were to simply skip the seeking process and just turn to models or practices that work somewhere else, we’d be skipping the most important part of the process - the seeking. The search may take longer that we wish, but we do need to keep seeking. I am ready to be proven a fool in this or else see the country explode with faith in Jesus from the inside out. Ordinary people who have never stepped inside a church building on their knees broken before the King of Kings! Yes, He can do it! And yes, he can use us as dumb or rebellious or insecure or unable as we may be!
Friday, April 27, 2007
