His Church, His Mission, His Glory

God’s strategy to bring Good News to the ends of the earth is through His people, His disciples, the family and fellowship of His redeemed, His church. The church, the body of Jesus Christ, is His Plan A. He has no Plan B. At this point, we discover the essence of what it means to be a Christ follower joined with other believers in the entity called church.

When many people, including church people, think of church, they think of the buildings where religious people meet. They envision steeples and sanctuaries. But this is not the hope of the world. God’s Plan A is not some sort of real estate venture to raise buildings around the world.

Some people think of church as “organized religion,” and wish not to be bothered by what they perceive to be an archaic expression of religion. So, they miss a non-negotiable key to God’s coming to man: His intention to build His church (Matthew 16: 18). They think church is boring or not relevant to their lives. Instead of submitting to some contrived or coerced system to serve a sovereign deity, they opt for finding god in their own way independent of “organized religion.”

That’s the critical error almost everybody makes about church. They think church is optional, some sort of elective. They reason: “I can find God and connect to Him (or Her) when and where and how I choose, if even I choose to do so. Church is not essential to my happiness or fulfillment.” But church is essential to the fulfillment of God’s purposes.

Churched people select a church and determine the degree of their involvement in that church based upon their personal preferences. We rationalize: “I decided to be a part of this church because it meets my needs. When it stops meeting my needs or stops doing things the way I think they should be done, then I may simply pick another church.”

One critical flaw is common to all of these misconceptions about church. We tend to define church apart from a fundamental reality – the church is God’s idea. Whatever we find attractive or repulsive about various brands of church matters very little when compared to this. Man did not create Christ’s church, God did. The issue is not what we get out of church. The bottom line with which we should concern ourselves is what does God expect to get out of church.

Here are just three principal outcomes God surely expects to get out of church, including First Baptist Church. First, God expects to receive glory from His church. He expects His church to manifest the truth about Him to the world. Second, God desires love from His church. He wants His people to enjoy relationship and maintain fellowship with Him. Third, God intends His church to be on His mission with Him. Everything God’s Word says about His church stresses this truth. This week in Experiencing God clarified for me that God expects His church to be on mission with Him for His glory.

Day 1: “God can impact the world through one church if it adjusts itself to God’s activity” (page 226).

Day 2: “Everything a church has belongs to the Kingdom” (page 231).

Day 3: “Biblical principles of God’s working with His people do not change” (page 234).

Day 4: “Koinonia [the experience of God’s presence and the basic element of salvation and eternal life] is possible only if a church is made up of individuals who are willing to submit to the lordship of Christ in the body of Christ” (page 242).

Day 5: “Each individual [church member] needs to experience the Lord’s presence at work in his or her life” (page 244).

One of our own, Larry Long, reflected these truths in a testimony letter he submitted to Dr. Bobby Gilstrap relating his experience on our recent missions trip to Indiana, Crossover Indy. I asked Larry for permission to share this with you.

On this mission trip, God showed me that He is in control. No matter how many months of prep time, how organized, and how prepared we thought we were, (and we actually were), God once again showed us that He is in charge of timetables, circumstances, and especially the WEATHER. I saw how God through His willing servants, (Brother Bobby Gilstrap, Brother Jim – the pastor of Hope Community Church, the church people from Hope, our FBC mission group, and other mission groups that came in last minute), was able to turn what could have been another cancelled block party into by all accounts a very successful one. Now Hope Community Church has at least 90 new un-churched prospects and – praise God! – another 5 people are now saved.

I am very thankful and happy I was able to be part of this year’s mission trip. I had a great time of fellowship and just had fun being around our mission group from Michigan. Thanks to Brother Bobby for being the best Director of Missions I know and for caring so much about the Father’s work.

One last thing, I was privileged to see how God can and does work in a local church. Hope Community Church was an older struggling church, but through the faithfulness of their pastor, Brother Jim, and, of course, the congregation, in just a few short years God has turned that church around. They have baptized over 80 people this year alone. The Sunday we were with them, they baptized another 2 and commissioned the first group of people from their church to do foreign mission work.

I just hope and pray that our church here in South Lyon and our other Michigan Baptist churches would soon see this kind of “God-sized” kingdom expansion occur here in our home churches.

Amen, brother! Help us see, Lord. May the Lord indeed accomplish His purposes through us to the praise of His glorious grace! And may we each be ever ready, constant, and glad to move our membership from our church to His church!

Pastor Rob