Give them Jesus not the Church

There has been a wonderful second Reformation in the church in the last twenty to thirty years as persons have imagined and dreamed new ways of doing church for the sake of reaching people with the good news of Jesus Christ. I think this second Reformation is going to change the face of Christendom forever and I feel privileged and blessed to be a part of it.

The rub with all this is that we must be careful in offering our "new kind of church" or in helping people "reimagine church" or as we "re-present church" or "in changing the way people think about church" that we are always keeping Christ the focus (I am not suggesting anybody is not here just thinking out loud as much for myself as anybody else!). What we are trying to reveal to folks is the power the living Christ can make in their lives both today and for eternity. We have to watch out for substituting a model for accomplishing that goal for the goal (Jesus) itself. Fresh expressions of Christianity in the context of a worshipping community are tools to connect people to Jesus. We need not seek to convert anybody to a style of doing church as a substitute for following the Master.

In all our creativity and innovation for Jesus we must remember that it's him that should always be front and center. It is Christ and the cross that should be the only stumbling block.