02 Dec Who Owns Your Church? (Part 2)
Yesterday, I asked you to consider the question, “Do I feel I have a shared ownership of the church I attend?”
I hope you wrestled with that question and did not easily fluff it off. It is an important question to ask. Your view of what happens at the church is based on your answer to this question. Today, I want to share a Scriptural defense of who truly owns and should control the agenda of the church.
The church belongs to…Jesus Christ.
- He is the head of the Church (Ephesians 1:22).
- He died for the Church (Romans 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:10).
- He determines the gifts each person receives through His Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11).
- He freely gives us all things we need (Romans 8:32; 2 Peter 1:3).
- He is the Savior of the church (Ephesians 5:23).
- He holds every church in His hands (Revelation 3:1).
- He gives the mission to the church (Matthew 28:19, 20).
We could give many more proofs. But the point is made. It is HIS church. His blood bought it; His Word established it; His Spirit fills it.
So how much do you think about His ownership and seek His direction about what happens at your church?
On Thursday, we will finally look at how we can say, “This is my church.”
Pastor Adam Will
Posted at 11:23h, 02 DecemberA lot of pastors talk about how “controllers” in the congregation think it is their church. But I think we pastors get that way too. I can see from personal experience that when it came to pursuing programing to fit our vision, sometimes, I did it with out asking God. Then, when it would flop, I’d blame God and ask Him why He caused me to waste trust, goodwill, and resources on a failed plan. The truth is that I wasn’t asking God what He thought. He gives the vision for the church, but we also need to consulte Him when it comes to implementation. Like you said, it’s His church!
http://openid.aol.com/tecumsehmaverick
Posted at 12:38h, 02 DecemberI think Adam’s point is excellent – laity and clergy alike can forget that the Church belongs to Christ. There is always a strong temptation to become the big fish in the small pond. Empire-building can be subtle and seductive, whether for laity or clergy.
However, I offer two observations.
1) More UB churches struggle with “lay ownership” than “pastoral ownership” issues
and
2) God raises up leadership, equippers in particular, for a reason. With that comes authority (in the sense of authorization, not necessarily in the sense of influence).
We have developed a [UB] culture where all too often lay people who think they ought to own the church slap down pastors who begin to lead. They often use a similar argument to “its your vision but I’m not sure its God’s vision”. In reality what they are saying “this is my church and your vision is not my vision”.
Many pastors, aware of our own tendency to run ahead of God, or fearful our own ego was behind our motivation, tend to back away, afraid that maybe there was just cause in the accusation.
I would suggest that the reality is that if God has truly placed us as His overseers of His flock in a particular time and place, then our vision is the preferred vision and “control” so long as we are obediently following where Christ leads.