The Business of the Church

[HKHaugan]

Posted: 09 Jun 2011 12:40 PM PDT

 From Ted Schroder, Amelia Chapel

Peter Drucker has rightly said, “There are only two questions that leaders of organizations must ask, all of the time: What is our main business? How is business?”

 The business of the Christian is to witness to Jesus. Before he ascended into heaven Jesus told his disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them and that they would be his witnesses wherever they would be – to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

 William Temple famously said: “The Church is the only society in the world that exists purely for the benefit of its non-members.”

 Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

 Emil Brunner wrote, “The Church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning.”

 C.S. Lewis also wrote, “The church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs.”

 If this is so then we should make it our main business to invite people to join us to hear the Gospel, we should give them Christian books, we should welcome visitors, we should communicate our witness in every way we can to our community, we should pray for our neighbors and friends that they come to know Christ, we should pray for a movement of the Spirit in their hearts, we should support with our giving such Christian outreach, we should love one another into the kingdom so that others may share with us the great joy of knowing Jesus.