TRAVELING BY GOD'S WAY, OR NOT

TRAVELING BY GOD’S WAY, OR NOT

   Mark [MKJV] 8:35 [Jesus explained] For whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, he shall save it.    

   Acts 2:40-42 [After passionately presenting the plain truth of the gospel] Peter said much more to warn them. He urged, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."  Those who accepted what Peter said were baptized. That day about 3,000 people were added to the group. The disciples were devoted to the teachings of the apostles, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

Dear fellow travelers,

  My heart is troubled.

  Recently sitting in a congregational meeting on church growth, actually the lack thereof, I heard not quotes from or references to God’s Word, the Bible, on the topic. This led me to prayerfully doing another topical search of Scripture and read the comments of Christ-like Bible-centered writers.

  First I reviewed the Greek meaning of “church”; ἐκκλησία; ekklēsia; ek-klay-see'-ah From a compound of G1537 and a derivative of G2564; a calling out, that is, (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both): - assembly, church. Source; Strong’s. Discovering 80 matches in 79 verses. (Available upon request.)

  Reading on I found what I have observed through my decades as a follower of Christ. The longer a congregation or denomination exists, the more concerned members become with comfort, self-preservation . . . and the less concerned with the church’s original reason for being: to direct souls to Christ as personal Savior and thereafter disciple those that believe. As time goes on a congregation becomes increasingly self-centered, self-serving, organizational and business like program oriented. The result, not surprisingly, is they stop growing spiritually and in numbers, even diminishing in both. This is when we must turn our focus back to Biblical church growth. Back to our original mission as followers of Christ, doing as did He, denying ourselves—Speaking of and living the plain truth on man’s need for Christ the Redeemer and unto those that believe being a mentor. (Mt.28:19)

Sincerely,

Edwin Bennett Bullock 4^th