I am very glad that we have received a wake up call about reaching the unchurched. We have many times hurt people by trying “to church them” rather than “preach the gospel” to them. We have worked on their “outside man” rather than the “inside man.” We have preached about what they should “do” rather than who they can “become (be level).”

They came in our church and we didn’t open our doors, we didn’t give an appropriate welcome which God’s people should and would do if they only had the attitude of Jesus. We preach “externals” to them when the “internal” had not been fixed.

We didn’t give them “good news” but “religious news!” We told them what “to do” and not what had been “done by Jesus” on the cross of Calvary. We tried to make unsaved people live like saved people. We tried to clean them up without the Lord doing so and they returned to where they came from.

But that brings us to the question. Is “church for the unchurched” and I say no. Church is for saved people. By definition that is what a church is.

The church is a group of baptized believers that have joined together to carry out the Great Commission and honor God with their lives.

The church is where we teach people how to do the work. The work doesn’t take place inside the church building but on the outside as we go out and live our lives, interact with people, share our faith, etc. In Ephesians 4:11 and following we see that God gave gifted people to the church to train the church in how to do the ministry.

Church is not a spectator sport. It is rather a place where God’s people get together to grow and learn how to serve God. Church shouldn’t be dumbed down so that everyone can feel like they belong. The gospel of Jesus should be preach high and lifted up. They must know their need. They must be challenged to repent of their sins and believe God.

Our church people should go out and carry the gospel. They should win people to Christ and bring them to church. They should bring their lost friends to church knowing that the gospel will be preached to them clearly and passionately.

But we should remember that the church is “to go” not “call to come.”

There is a great deal to learn from the movement to reach the unchurched if you take it in balance.

We do need to clean up our buildings, make our nurseries better, have services that are planned and power filled, preach the gospel clear, etc.

We do not need to lower the level of holiness and desire to please God so that the lost feel comfortable.

The darkness will never feel very comfortable around the light but it may just get convicted enough to be converted.

What do you think?

Check out bcwe.org

The following are some old notes from audio of classes I taught to missionaries. This blog’s tag line is “wild thoughts on world evangelism.” We will never accomplish the task of world evangelism without hard work. God’s people who give us our salaries through sacrificial offerings will never respect the work until we learn to work hard.

God expects us to work hard. Work at least 50-60 hours per week, not counting church services, choir practices, and visitation. If the regular church people are expected to do their secular job and then show up at church in one of the ministries, then you have no choice but to do the same.

I think it is very unfair that preachers want a day each week, but the church members do not get one. The regular layman works from Monday-Friday, and then we tell him that he has to show up for visitation on Saturday. We expect 2, 3, or even 4 hours of visitation from him on Saturday, which is his day off. Then, we expect him at church on Sunday for four to six hours. Sunday School and church on Sunday morning last a couple of hours, and that is not counting getting ready and going to church. Church on Sunday night is at least an hour or two, and don’t forget choir practice, the deacon’s meeting, and the teacher’s meeting.

Check out bcwe.org

The following excerpts are from an article in the Nigerian Tribune. To say the list it is embarrassing as we think of how our pastors love their titles. Read, laugh, cry, and maybe think a little!

Thus, they began to approach traditional institutions for all kinds of titles prominent among which were the chieftaincy titles.

Though these titles are reserved for individuals who have distinguished themselves in a given community, the money power of the politicians changed the norm. As a result, these chieftaincy titles were bestowed on the “highest bidder” while the scope was expanded to accommodate as many as would be able to “pay” for them.

Many men of God, particularly those of the pentencostal christian faith flaunt strings of titles which are incomplete without academic titles.Examples are: “ Prophet Evangelist (Dr),” “Bishop (Dr),” “Most Superior Leader Evangelist (Dr)”, etc.

Hence, it didn’t come as a surprise when recently, a popular preacher in Ibadan, who had since been addressing himself as a “Dr” among other titles apparently got tired of it and dropped it for the appellation of a “professor”.

Against this backdrop, the Nigerian Tribune interviewed a cross section of Nigerians.The question was, why the craze for academic titles among these men of honour?

According to Afen Ogah, a civil servant, it is a means of profile building or image enhancement. He observed further that it could also be as a result of envy and transfer in which case these half-educated ministers of the Word wished they were intellectuals, adding however, that, “these preachers do not really preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which is the gospel of the blood, since many of Christ’s disciples were martyred. They preach the modern gospel and the craze for titles is part of it.”

Pastor Lawrence Obisesan, a minister of the Christ Apostolic Church, averred that while people appreciate academics and wish to be like them, most of the title-bearing men of God do so for self-aggrandisement. He maintained that even if they actually earned these titles, they needed not flaunt them since they were meaningless before God and were not a passport to heaven.

Pastor Suleiman rationalised that this much could be expected in a situation where the preachers lack the anointing and have lost grip of the great commandment; where they groom themselves to be motivational speakers rather than preaching the Word that is backed by the power of God.

The views of a public relations practitioner, were almost in tandem with that of the don. He observed that these priests have ego problem and are, therefore, trying to create a false sense of importance for themselves by bearing the titles. While admitting that it is natural to want to boost one’s ego, he however, disagreed with the manner these pastors go about it.” They don’t need to create that kind of status which they cannot justify. If you lay claim to a title, you should be able to justify it.”

He lamented this attitude which he said could only happen in country like ours “where everybody is looking for a way of cutting corners which has extended to the church.” He said further, “rather than apply itself to spirituality, the church is becoming more and more entrepreneurship.”

In the words of a media executive, Odeh Ebri, “the situation could be a case of trying to emulate the trend in the mother church (the Catholic Church) whose priests adequately qualify to have these strings of titles having been well trained and grounded to acquire such titles either in Catholic universities or the regular ones”.

The fact is, a titled honour is noble when it is merited.This deserving honour adds some positiveness to the person concerned and the society at large. But when it is the reverse, it is less honourable.