I Corinthians 1-12:13, 3:4-11, 3:21 – 23 New Living Translation.
12 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of
Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter, [d]” or “I
follow only Christ! …… 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and
another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the
world? 5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants
through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave
us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God
who made it grow. 11 for no one can lay
any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ…. 21 So don’t
boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you—
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Peter,[g] or the world, or life and death, or the
present and the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ,
and Christ belongs to God.
When we look at the Church today, what do we
see and what do we mean by the word Church ? to some the word Church has a
negative effect on the other hand, the word Church has a positive effect, to
others Church should be consigned to the past, and it doesn’t have any
relevance to them and society both today in the present or indeed tomorrow the
future, some think of the word Church and they think of a physical building
others think of the New Testament concept of God’s people or a spiritual
building.
The Church today is divided into various camps
or tribal groups, that more often or not have very little to do with other
camps or tribal groups, sometimes different churches can be close to each in
terms of a physical distance, but miles apart in so many other ways. Is the Church somewhere we can go to or is
it a body of people that we belong to, and are joined alongside each other to
work alongside each other to see the Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom preached
to those without the Good News of Salvation through our Lord and Saviour Jesus.
We are divided into groups or denominations
that have more to do with our past, and very little to do with our present or
future. We hold onto ways of both doing and being church because of our history
and our responsibilities to that history, and the expectancies of others.
Sometimes we're divided into seemingly rival tribal groups, because for some
our revelation of being and doing church is driven by being the people of God
where His Presence dwells, but on the other hand we're divided because of
politics and personalties !.
We don’t need another “ new “
expression of Church, being built out of people’s own sense of
importance , and because of their misguided zeal they will attempt
to draw followers after themselves from established churches, offering
false promises and prophecies and they tell people that if join us, the
grass will be greener, unfortunately these “ new “ expressions of church
have no foundations and no covering, because they think that we will
build our own foundations and we will become our own covering, we need to
be built up together as one church, and not be separated into
another tribe or grouping.
The Church is a movement for change and
transformation but for many of us The Church has become a monument to our
spiritual forefathers who were a movement for change and transformation !.
We follow men and sometimes women, we follow
the traditions that were our spiritual forefather’s doctrines and their
distinctiveness from other tribal groups and when someone from another tribe
says let’s meet together for fellowship and to share together, we say we can't
because we’re group a and your group b and our big chief said in 1920 said that
we need to avoid group b because your understanding of church and Christianity
is different from way he told us to be the church and to be a Christian and
therefore you’re wrong, or we do meet together but in a spirit of reluctance
and/or a spirit of mistrust, we’ve created theories, doctrines, theologies and solutions how we’re
to be the church and to life our Christian lives and be a Christian Witness,
but many of those theories etc belong in the past, and have become hindrances
and obstacles for us today.
Many of our tribes or denominations have become
tied to the way we did Church, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or a 100 plus years ago, we
look for structure and safety in the past.
We think that the way we do and are the Church is the right or indeed
the only way to be do or be Church, we
mistake our history for our present and future and wonder why despite our best
efforts, our prayers indeed our prophecies, we’re unfulfilled !
When our Lord Jesus walked the streets of his
homeland, he saw a fig tree and when he
looked for fruit he found only leaves Matthew 21:18-20, 18 In the morning, as he was returning to the
city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a
fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves.
And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree
withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, “How
did the fig tree wither at once?
I would say that so many of our churches are
like that fig tree, yes we have life but it has gone to produce only leaves,
instead of producing leaves alongside fruit, indeed later in the same chapter,
Jesus spoke about the physical nation of Israel, saying that because they
trusted in themselves rather than trusting in the Lord, that had lost the
Kingdom of God, Matthew 21:43 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will
be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
For many of our churches today, we’ve lost the
Kingdom of God because we’ve trusted in ourselves, our systems, structures and
strategies instead of trusting Him , our Lord and Saviour Jesus, we’ve just grown leaves not fruit and God has
gone and left us, even then we’ve created a theology and/or theory/or solutions
around that, see Habakkuk 3:15-18 17 Even though the fig trees have no
blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop
fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the
fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my
salvation!
However there is a message of hope, for those
Churches that once proclaimed God’s Message, Haggai 1:6 6 You have planted much but harvest little.
You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on
clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting
them in pockets filled with holes! See Haggai 1, our transformation isn’t due
to our living in the luxury houses that
are our own tribal groups/denominations/churches but rather our
transformation comes through being part of His Church, or the Temple or the
House of the Lord. We’ve become consumed that our way of doing and being Church
is also the Lord’s way of doing and being Church, but our ways are not his ways
of doing and being Church see Isaiah 55:8-11
We have set in place man made structures,
systems and organizations to how to do and be the Church today, we set in place
committees, clerical systems and called and commissioned those He’s not called
and commissioned to lead us in being the Church and we wonder why nothing is
working, we’ve watered down and diluted our message to make it pliable to
others, we’ve accepted things that go against Biblical Standards like
Homosexual Clergy and wonder why God
isn’t moving amongst us and blessing us
Yet, there is hope for us the Church, the old wineskins of our ways, those beloved ways of doing and being the
Church aren’t working and if we try to add His way of being and doing Church or
the new wine to our old wineskins, our old wineskins are going to tear and
break up, instead we need His new wineskins of doing and being the Church, his
structure, systems, and Leadership* and following those He has called and
commissioned to lead us forward, see Luke 5:37-39.
We notice in Scripture, there is a God Ordained
indeed Organized way of being and doing Church, no longer will our man made
systems cope with the things, our message should be say no, to the status
quo, We don’t need any other or more
denominations or tribes, we don’t need another methodology of doing and being
the Church. We need to be a Movement and
not a Monument. We need to see a restoration of Apostolic Christianity, which
is a Movement for the 21st Century Church not a Monument to the 1st Century
Church. We need to see Revival through a
Renewed Church.
It says in Ephesians 4:11-13* 11 Now these are
the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip
God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13
This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge
of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and
complete standard of Christ. See
Ephesians 4:11-16 for context.
Yours in His Grace
Blair Humphreys
Southport, Merseyside
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