Fishers of Men

I heard yet another message this morning, from the pastor of a Baptist church, telling his congregation of the great need for change in the church~the need to become "relevant" so that the lost will come into the church, and thereby come to know Christ and be saved.

I understand what this pastor is trying to say. I just think he's misguided.

I am firmly convinced that winning the lost should NOT be the main goal of the church. The church's MAIN goal should be to edify and equip the believer to go out WHERE THE LOST ARE, and show them Christ, leading them to Him.

I think one reason that more people aren't being saved is that so many christians think that it's up to the church to win the lost. They seem to think that as long as they show up for worship services and participate in all the appropriate programs, they are doing their part to win the lost.

That is so sad. Jesus never called "the church" to win the lost. He called INDIVIDUALS to be "fishers of men". The christians who came together in the churches in the New Testament came together to WORSHIP and to ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER and GROW each other, so that they could go out and share the gospel with others through their daily lives. The Word of God tells us that HE "added to the church daily, such as should be saved". That indicates to me that they were saved first, THEN added to the church.

I feel strongly about this because I've seen the effects that this "the church must do whatever it can to bring in the lost" mindset can have, especially on children and young adults.

A church that I used to attend had a nice little youth group. The young people did things together~they went on outings, and they had a youth Bible study, and they fellowshipped together in the church's gym and game room. The thing that stood out to me and my husband about these young people is that they always looked nice~some of them wore jeans and t-shirts, but they were clean, neat, and always appropriate. Then, a new youth pastor took over. This youth pastor was, and is, a fine young man, who truly loves the Lord, and has a heart for ministry to teens. But, he had fallen under this misguided notion that the church, and particularly his youth group, needed to do "whatever it took" to bring in the lost so that they could hear about Jesus.

Soon, the youth activities and outings took on a much greater importance than the Bible studies. At first, a FEW young people came in in ripped, baggy jeans and dirty, wrinkled shirts. A FEW girls wore tight and/or revealing clothes. Before long, ALL the young people were coming in to church on Sunday morning looking like they had dressed in whatever clothes they had thrown on the floor on Saturday night. Soon, the young people stopped attending services in the main auditorium at all, and instead held seperate services in the youth area. It became like 2 seperate churches. It was really sad.

There were a few young people saved in the youth services, and I praise God for that. But what about the damage done to the other kids in the youth group? What about those who lost any reverence for the house of God, and who began to view church as a social activity, rather than a time to worship God? Would they not have been better off to be taught how to go out and share Christ with their friends, THEN invite them to church, rather than turning the church into a teen hangout just so the lost would "feel comfortable" coming there?

It is my conviction that a church full of saved people is the LAST place where a lost person should feel COMFORTABLE. They should come there NOT to feel comfortable, but to see what it is that these saved people have that is missing from their own lives. The church should be DIFFERENT enough to make them wonder about it!

It's just really sad that so many churches have become so conformed to the world that they don't look different any more.

Vicki