The Emperor Has No Clothes

BY DERMOT COTTULI

Over the past 26 years I’ve been on a journey that started during my first stint as a senior pastor when Deb and I moved to Deeragun, north of Townsville back in 1997 to take on the leadership of a newly planted church. Prior to Townsville I’d spent 5 years in Tasmania helping to plant a church and then 4 years as an assistant pastor in Brisbane. It was in Townsville that I first started to really grapple with the questions, “What is church all about?” and “What is it that we’re meant to be doing as pastors, when we have the weighty responsibility of leading a church?”

I remember asking myself the question, “Where does Jesus want to be in my community?” And the answer I came up with was, “He wants to be at the very heart of it, he wants to be known by everyone.” Sounded great in my head, but how were we meant to take him there? Obviously if the church is His body then it stood to reason that the church needed to be involved at a grassroots level in the community if they were to have any hope of meeting Jesus through our service. But then it lead to another question,”How would we know if we’d been successful in taking him into our community?”

The only answer I could come up with for the last question was another question, “If our church were to close its’ doors tomorrow would anyone even notice?” Which has then over the last few years, morphed into “Would our community suffer if we were no longer here or would our absence make no difference whatsoever?”

We can talk about reaching the world, our nation, our state, or our community till the cows come home, but if they have no idea we’re even around, all the praying in a back room won’t change the relevance of Jesus to the average Australian.

Sure, God could send an angel to talk to people in their homes but when has that ever happened in your experience? We can declare salvation over our neighbourhoods and yell out “Amen” in our prayer meetings but what difference does that make? Some might say we’re impacting the invisible realm, the realm of the supernatural, when we declare God’s truth over nations. Now that may be the case, but then again, it’s just as likely that it’s making no difference whatsoever other than to drown out the quiet despair that we keep hidden deep in our hearts when the reality of our experience doesn’t measure up to our hyped up expectation.

I love our movement, the Australian Christian Churches. I love the expression of Jesus’ life and the prominence we’ve given to the work of the Holy Spirit in and through our local expressions of church. But I’m starting to think we’ve stopped at the door and failed to enter into all that God wants for us, indeed, commands of us in the great mission before us – the reaching of our communities with the love of Jesus.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit was never meant to be an end in itself but rather an empowering for mission, a mission that is seen in, and through, the good works we do in community.

When Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit after his baptism we read that he was full of the Holy Spirit. When he came out of the wilderness at the start of his 3 years of ministry, we read in Luke 4 that he came out in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s at this stage in the narrative that our old-timers start getting excited. Then Jesus heads back home and goes along to his local synagogue on the sabbath. He gets handed the scroll of Isaiah to read from and opens up to Isaiah 61 – He starts reading and the first words out of his mouth are, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me…” This is the bit we as pentecostals love! But it doesn’t stop there, Jesus then goes on to say WHY he’s been anointed – it’s to bring good news to the poor.

Luke 4:11-19
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me TO bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come.”

Did you see that?

The very first group of people that Jesus mentions are the poor, and he links his anointing by the Holy Spirit directly to his mission to the poor.

If the alleviation of poverty and injustice doesn’t feature prominently in your teaching and practice in your local church you’re in danger of becoming a Pharisee, and not the good type, the type that Jesus saved up his greatest condemnation for.

If Jesus used Isaiah 61 as his missional mandate how can we park ourselves at the anointing and not move on to the very reason that the anointing is given, reaching the poor and the oppressed?

“Could it be that the only true justification we have for the anointing of God’s Spirit is when we’re engaged in Jesus’ mission to the poor? That maybe it’s not a lack of passion and desire for the gifts but rather a lack of obedience to reach our communities through our good deeds that is keeping us from seeing the miraculous that was so evident in Jesus’ ministry?”

Peter, when speaking to Cornelius’s household after Jesus’ ascension and the coming of the Spirit on the fledgling church, said this about the Holy Spirit and the example that Jesus set,

Acts 10:37, 38
You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

Directly after mentioning the anointing of the Holy Spirit that was on Jesus, Peter says that Jesus went around doing good, and then he continues with the bit about healing all those who were under the power of the devil. For Peter to bring it up to Cornelius shows that Jesus’ reputation was built firstly on the good that he did (You know…) and then the supernatural power that was evidenced through the miracles following his ministry.

Later in John 13 when Jesus is telling his disciples to love each other, he attaches it to his statement about the world knowing that they were his disciples by the love they expressed for each other. Notice he didn’t say by their miracles that people would know they were his disciples, but rather the way they treated those around them? That has to make you think.

John 13:34, 35
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

It’s at this stage that some would say it’s not either/or and I would totally agree with them. The supernatural manifestation that we see through the miraculous is proof that what we say we believe is true. However the supernatural was always meant to be a supporting pillar of our mission and not the mission of the church itself. The mission of the church is to go to the poor, the marginalised, the downtrodden and those suffering injustice through no fault of their own, and through our actions and message, point them toward Jesus’ love for them.

Some people have said that a gospel that focuses on alleviating poverty and focusing on reversing societal injustice is a weak, woke version of the true gospel and that if we go down that path we will become irrelevant and miss our true call of making disciples of all nations. And yet Jesus says in Matthew 25 that unless we feed the poor, cloth the naked, open our homes to the homeless, care for the sick and visit those in prison we won’t gain entrance into heaven.

Matthew 25:31-46
“The Son of Man will come in all his glory. All the angels will come with him.

(This isn’t a parable, this is a foretelling of the future)

Then he will sit in glory on his throne. All the nations will be gathered in front of him. He will separate the people into two groups. He will be like a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep to his right and the goats to his left.
“Then the King will speak to those on his right. He will say, ‘My Father has blessed you. Come and take what is yours. It is the kingdom prepared for you since the world was created.”

“I was hungry. And you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty. And you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger. And you invited me in. I needed clothes. And you gave them to me. I was sick. And you took care of me. I was in prison. And you came to visit me.’

“Then the people who have done what is right will answer him.”

(Just stop here for a moment – Jesus has just told us what it is that we should be doing with our lives)

‘Lord,’ they will ask, ‘when did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in? When did we see you needing clothes and give them to you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘What I’m about to tell you is true. Anything you did for one of the least important of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

(And then he talks to the others)

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘You are cursed! Go away from me into the fire that burns forever. It has been prepared for the devil and his angels. I was hungry. But you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty. But you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger. But you did not invite me in. I needed clothes. But you did not give me any. I was sick and in prison. But you did not take care of me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty and not help you? When did we see you as a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘What I’m about to tell you is true. Anything you didn’t do for one of the least important of these, you didn’t do for me.’
“Then they will go away to be punished forever. But those who have done what is right will receive eternal life.”

(If that doesn’t give you pause…)

And then we have Isaiah 58 where God through the Prophet Isaiah is incredibly brutal in the response he gives to Israel’s religious efforts which they were taking great pride in at the time. All their praying, all their fasting, all their seeking of God was considered worthless because they weren’t spending their lives to alleviate poverty and overturn the oppression that was all around them.

Isaiah 58:1-12
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

So very, very practical.

When we compare this portion of Isaiah’s prophecy with the words of Jesus in Matthew 25 you can’t help but realise they’re related. The revelation of Isaiah and the words of Jesus go hand in hand.

Isaiah prophesied in a similar vein earlier in Chapter 42 and once again we see a connection with Jesus and his ministry.

Isaiah 42:1-4
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Once again we have a correlation between the empowering of the Spirit and the mission of Jesus with a direct reference to bringing justice on the earth.

What’s sad about this particular chapter in Isaiah is that plenty of Pentecostals like to quote from it but they don’t start at the beginning, they move straight to verse 9 and then make it all about themselves and “their ministry”.

See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you.”

Without starting at the beginning of the chapter we lose context for everything else that follows. The new things that God is declaring will happen, are spoken of in verses 5-7. They are written about before they have occurred, hence God’s declaration in verse 9

Isaiah 42:5-7
This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Sounds very similar to the mission of Jesus doesn’t it? Is it any wonder that many Bible scholars believe that Isaiah was speaking about Jesus and his future ministry.

The Pastors Responsibility

As a pastor you should be extremely concerned with the words your people will hear from Jesus when they stand in front of him. What you should want them to hear is Jesus saying to them, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” For Jesus to say those words, you need to know what it is that he’s looking for in the lives of his followers and then you need to teach, preach, equip and encourage them to embody and practice the things that Jesus is passionate about. If you do, and your people put into practice Jesus’ commands, then you won’t be able to go unnoticed in your community. You will be compelled and propelled to the very heart of it.

Matthew 5:13-16
“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

What is Jesus looking for in the lives of his followers? He’s looking for good deeds that help the poor, the oppressed, the marginalised and the forgotten.

Your good works cannot open the door of salvation, only Jesus can. But once it’s open it’s your good works that will keep it from closing.

I was at a Pastors retreat recently and I was sharing about the journey God has been taking us on as a church and the emphasis we were seeing in scripture to engage in good works toward the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden and those the world has forgotten. One of the pastors present, asked how we could talk about good works without making our salvation dependent on good works (a works based gospel) because didn’t Paul say we were saved by faith, not by works lest any man boast?

My reply was, “It’s easy, we need to teach our people that our salvation is dependent on both, faith and good works.”

Now Paul did say in Ephesians 2 that we’re saved by faith and not by works and he was totally correct in what he said. Why? Because none of us are sinless and every one of us needs Jesus to pay the price of our sin so that we can receive salvation. Salvation is a free gift and it starts with the forgiveness of our sin. That’s what Jesus dealt with on the cross through his death in place of us. He paid the price that was required because of our sin. By believing in him the door into God’s presence is open for us and we can walk boldly into his throne room as His adopted sons and daughters. None of us can die for our sins so in that regard our salvation is free, a gift of grace.

If we were to die at the point of our profession of faith in Jesus we would go straight to heaven no problems whatsoever. But if we remain around on earth then what we do and how we live our lives becomes incredibly important to our future destination.

And the one who told us that our salvation was a free gift from God also writes that we can lose our salvation if we don’t change our behaviour and persist in doing good.

Romans 2:5-8
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Jesus himself in Matthew 25 made it clear that the things we did for others were being recorded and would be used to determine which side of the ledger we’d find ourselves on when our lives were being judged after our death.

Matthew 25:46
“Then they will go away to be punished forever. But those who have done what is right will receive eternal life.”

James says that our good deeds complete our faith and without them our faith is dead and useless.

James 2:14-17
What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

20-24
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

It wasn’t just Jesus, Paul and James who taught on this although most believers only reference James when talking about the correlation between faith and works. The apostle John also drew the same connection between our faith and our actions in his first letter.

1 John 2:3-6
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

I John 3:16-18
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

What’s the offshoot of doing good works in your community?

When you actively serve your community through your good works your community will open its heart to you.

Mark 10:45
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

When we first arrived in Rokeby (a social housing estate on the outskirts of Hobart) we decided that we wouldn’t start up any projects but instead find out what our community was already doing and offer to help them. We took Jesus’ words in Mark 10 to heart and decided that rather than promoting the church throughout our community we’d roll up our sleeves and offer to serve the various groups who were already doing great things throughout Clarence Plains. That initially involved me, as the senior pastor, attending lots of community led meetings because I was the one who had the time available during the week to show up. When the senior pastor of the local church turns up to community meetings it’s the same as the entire church attending.

Gradually over time, we became more and more embedded in our community and whenever there were community planned events we were there serving on committees and volunteering at the events in practical ways. We are now known right throughout Clarence Plains as a church that cares and have had doors open up to us with people of influence simply because we did what Jesus has called us to do – help those who are in need.

It also meant that the burden of running meetings wasn’t held by us. When you are few in number that can be incredibly draining. However we were now able to help lots of people outside of the church without having to run events to reach them and because we were there to help, it made connecting so much easier.

Matthew 23:15
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

An important consideration in making this approach work for us has been to set aside the idea that we were doing this to grow our church and simply approach our service as our way of doing good deeds in obedience to Jesus’ command in Matthew 5 and Matthew 25. The issue that we were trying to address was our propensity to make our love transactional which in itself, negates our loving service and turns it into a marketing strategy to grow our consumer base. Where we only do acts of service as a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

When you decide to do good in your local community Jesus’ love will be seen through your actions. When you love your community with no strings attached, without an ulterior motive, they’ll start to see what God’s love for them is really like. To do that we need to go and sit with them and hear from them about what their needs are and then partner with them to see those needs met. We’re working for their benefit not our own. It’s the evidence or proof of true discipleship.

It starts with the Pastor and leaders

Matthew 23:1-4
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.

If your people were to follow your example would your community be reached over the next 10 years? Not saved, but reached. If not, why not?

Be very careful not to preach your job description onto your people. They were never meant to do what you’ve been gifted to do. When you transfer your job description onto your people you set them up to fail and cause them to feel defeated before they walk out of your service.

Discipleship

Matthew 28:19, 20
So you must go and make disciples of all nations. Baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end.”

What was Jesus’ description of a disciple? A disciple is someone who’s been baptised (transferred their allegiance to God) and obeys the commands of Jesus. Jesus commands can be summed up in two which according to him, are of equal importance. To love God with everything you have and to love your neighbour as yourself or as he expands on it in John 13, to love each other as he has loved us. In fact he says that the way he measures our love for him is how well we love others. “If you love me you will obey my command and this is my command, that you love each other as I have loved you.”

So a disciple of Jesus is someone who knows they are loved by God, who love Him in return and prove their love for Him by actively loving everyone in their world, especially the ones Jesus came to reach.

Therefore it leads me to the conclusion that the only true fruit of discipleship is seen in the way we love those in our world.

Ephesians 4:11, 12
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service,

Our job as Pastors is to equip new believers for works of service. Service is the fruit of love in action. But we do our people a huge disservice when we make their service all about serving on a team in a Sunday meeting. Serving on a team on a Sunday is equal to doing chores around home. Someone has to do them but seriously, if you think they’re going to change the world, you really need to get out more.

The love that changes the world is the love that reaches down to care for the poor, the oppressed, the marginalised and the forgotten.

We love the idea that Jesus stepped down from heaven to come to earth to save us, but where in your life are you actively stepping down to reach others with his love? Too often our approach to scripture is all about the benefit we can receive from it for our own lives failing to realise that it contains our marching orders to take God’s good news to the poor.

Paul uses the analogy of a soldier to demonstrate the attitude that he believed believers should adopt and it’s an interesting analogy, especially to all of us who’ve spent any time in the military. I can’t recall any exercise or deployment where I felt comfortable. It was always a struggle when on active duty. It was only once the mission was over that we were given some r&r and could focus on fun. Our service, our mission was never about us, it was always about the agenda of our commanding officers who were serving our nation’s best interest. To serve well we had to die to our own desires and that was NEVER pleasant. Is it any wonder that obeying the commands of Jesus has fallen out of favour within our churches and we find ourselves in our current state of crying out to God for revival, the return of our happy feelings, the feeling we experienced when we first found Jesus?

When church leadership primarily focus their time and energy on Sunday services we can find ourselves stuck on a treadmill trying to keep people happy and engaged and in the process end up elevating the importance of a meeting to something it should never have been, in our desire to keep people coming along.

Church on the weekend was only ever meant to be on par to the change sheds in a footy match at half time, where the players come in off the field to have a rest and get ready to go back out and play. We all too often forget in the process of “doing” church that the churches main arena is out in the world, in our communities and in the places that Jesus went to, where the poor, the oppressed and the forgotten live. That’s where the game of life is played. That’s where the true heroes of the church will be found. Thats where the Kingdom of God advances.

Who would Jesus sit with? Are you sitting with them?

Matthew 9:10-13
Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”

Most of us today find ourselves cheering Jesus on because for us, we think it’s a badge of honour to be known as a friend of sinners. Why? Because as Jesus rightly pointed out, it was those who weren’t well who needed a doctor. We find it difficult to understand how the Pharisees could have been so blind to their prejudices and yet we run the same risk of being just as hypocritical as the Pharisees were.

Times have changed and to understand why the Pharisees were so upset and the actions of Jesus were so radical we have to contextualise it, we have to bring it forward into our current cultural and religious setting and find something that will illicit the same response from modern day Pharisees that Jesus faced back in his day. And that isn’t an easy task to do but I believe wholeheartedly it’s something that we MUST do if we’re to truly understand the heart of God toward all of humanity and not miss the lessons that God has for us when blinded by our own prejudices.

If we were to read the passage in Matthew and change tax collectors and sinners to gay people and transgenders I wonder how many of us would find ourselves sitting with the Pharisees rather than the people that Jesus came to reach?

I wonder how many people would push back and say it’s different and try to justify themselves and their stance with Scripture? Because don’t for a minute think that the Pharisees weren’t justifying their actions in the most rigorous ways possible, in their own minds and with each other.

What did Jesus say when he noticed the Pharisees arcing up?

13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.’

He took that straight from Hosea 6:6, a prophet from their history that the Pharisees revered.

Hosea 6:6
I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me
more than I want burnt offerings.

Would anyone complain about the people you’re sitting with?

One last point – It was Matthew who told this story, not Jesus…

What we measure we value and what we value directs our practice

Too often in our churches the only things we measure are bums on seats on Sunday, how much money came in, in the offering, how many visitors we had, how many volunteers we’ve engaged in each service and the number of small groups that function throughout the week and the percentage of our people involved in them. Those measurements then become the drivers of our practice, the way we do things, and we start to measure our success against those KPI’s. Can you see the issues that can flow from this process?

When we use the typical “church dashboard” as our measurements, then recruit our church members to see that our KPI’s are met, we end up placing a burden on them that they were never meant to carry. Bringing people to church becomes the number one value that determines whether we’re being a “good” Christian and creates a class system that never should have gained any traction in Christian circles. But as long as pastors measure their personal success by how large their church is we will keep producing stunted Christians who feel like failures.

BTW we haven’t measured any of these for the past 5 years and are more fruitful and aligned with Jesus mandate then we ever have been. Your church won’t collapse, although your ownership of it may take a hit, but who’s to say that’s not a good thing?

We should be producing Christians who obey the commands of Christ. We don’t do that by preaching our job description onto them but by telling them what Jesus requires of them and will be judging their lives against. And that always comes down to the good that they do toward others, starting with the poor.

Unfortunately when we stand in front of Jesus he wont be asking us for our tithe record or even our attendance records. He will ask us if we fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, invited the stranger into our homes, cared for the sick and visited the prisoner. (Matt 25)

I understand why pastors would measure bums on seats on a Sunday because they look out across their church every Sunday and see every empty seat in their building. I understand why they might want to see those seats full rather than empty because it validates our ego and makes us feel good. The problem though is when we start to preach and teach in such a way that we place pressure on our people to fill those seats to the point that they start to measure their effectiveness and value as Jesus followers by the number of people they can invite along to church.

Which brings us back to a very important question, “What is it that you’re measuring in your church?” Answer that question and you’ll reveal your personal KPI’s. You’ll open a window into why you’re doing what you’re doing and the driver behind your practice. It’s only when we face up to what’s driving us that we have any hope of changing it.