4 major shifts the church must make to have lasting impact in the world.

Everything in the world is geared toward a change. So it’s time for church to change too.

Followings are where I think we need to make a shift…

From Possessors to Saviours…

I know it’s God’s promise to Abraham’s seed that we shall possess the gates of the enemies.

Obadiah also confirms that the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

In as much as I love to admit that there are things which are freely given to us and, of course, we must claim all of them. Yet for the sake of the lost and troubled world we might have to give up those rights.

“All things are lawful for me but not all things are expedient”.

That’s more like the attitude to display.

The world we are called to bless as salt and lights sure needs saviours, not possessors. Our testimony of prosperity and abundant riches will only alienate them from us if those riches aren’t blessing them.

The church of Christ in this end-time is meant to be a solution provider. She is to raise saviours in the societies, that is, men and women who’d be the visible hands of the invisible God to touch and heal the people.

Until our money begins to make positive meaning in the lives of the oppressed, our message is doomed to be lost forever.

Preaching to Discipling.

Unfortunately we have too many preaching in the church these days that people can’t remember anything. What we really need is discipling.

When you take a closer look at the Great Commission we’ll realise the reason we are to preach is to make disciples of all nations.

This is what helped the first generation christians. It was recorded concerning them that they turned the world upside down with their doctrine. How else could that be possible?

Discipling!

Jesus came making disciples and selected twelve trusted among them to lead the others. His direct disciples continued the tradition and they made more disciples who made more and more…

And they conquered the whole of the asian world.

What did it wasn’t preaching alone. It was discipleship. Anybody who can talk can preach, I think most people can, but discipling goes beyond talk to actual doing. It’s leading by example. Not everyone can do that, though.

Have you heard the statement that people no longer read the bible anymore, instead, they read us the christians. We are the epistles. That’s what makes it difficult to disciple. Yet, it’s the solution to putting an end to breeding half-baked christians like we’re having today.

Gifting to Purpose…

I mentioned this in my last post. We focus so much on gifts in the church today that we fail on the part of the purpose.

Our main purpose is to serve God with all that we are and have. It’s called bringing glory to God. Guess what happens if the church decides to focus on that?

Most time we care about our own glory. We call attention to ourselves, our gifts, skills, even anointing, forgetting why God saved us in the first place. The result is that we reign for a while and we’re soon forgotten by the fans who’ve once sung our songs. We expire too quickly.

Why did God give us our several gifts and graces?

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us” (Rm 12:6 NIV).

Obviously not to use it to call attention to ourselves. They’re not to make us stars, though that can happen. Rather to bring glory to God by serving him with those gifts.

To help free more people from the grip of hell. And this follows a certain order. Micheal Pitt describe this in Boundary Shifters like this…

“God releases Governing ones,the governing ones releases the Gifted ones, the gifted ones releases the Gathered ones, and the gathered ones releases the Gated ones”.

One thing it’s overlook here is the fact that the governing ones are gifted people too. In order word, God gave us those gifts so we can free the gated, that is, the captives.

“Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men” (Ps 68:18).

Puncturing church doctrines to tearing down the devil’s kingdom.

Take a look at the church of christ today and tell me what you see. Division everywhere. The crude truth is, the devil likes it.

We are all called to fight the good fight of faith but we seem to be interested in fighting each other than we are fighting the devil.

Ministers can’t preach effectively today unless they find a doctrine to criticise. Denominationalism and sectarianism have become the order of the day. What time do we then have to disciple?

In agreement, not division, lies the power of the church. That’s because when we agree we multiply quickly. That also means it’ll be easy for us to fulfil what I call the SPREAD mandate.

“…and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south” (Gen 28:14).

“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left…” (Isa 54:2,3).

It takes multiplication to spread. But we can’t have division and multiply at the same time. Agreement is what takes us to the realm of accomplishing the impossible.

“If two of you on earth agree about ANYTHING you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Mt 18:19).

Church, when are we going to get it?

In conclusion, we need to understand that people only respond to impact. If our presence is not felt in the world, what sort of ministry are we running them?

For that impact to be felt, it’s important we all do it as one body. Our gifts and talents should be submitted for the purpose for which they were given in the first place.

Not only that, our christian faith is likely to be discredited if all we focus on is building endless wealth and cathedrals without really helping the poor, both the church and outside the church.

Like I said before, we may have to give up some of our rights. I promise you, that’s not going to be easy at all.

Segun Dada is God’s Own Errand Boy, and Yours. He writes to relegate the fluffs by promoting real Values.