Nothing is more important to the purposes of God on earth as the local church. When we are saved, Jesus Christ of Nazareth personally picks out a local church for us to go to, and has decided a role, a place, a position, for us in that local church. We are all members of the body of Christ, and we are all different parts of that body. That teaching is found all over the Bible, especially 1 Corinthians 12, and I am not going to rehash it right now, but the truth that is essential for today’s blog is that God has put every single Christian into a local church – for His glory, not necessarily to make that person happy.
That includes you as a pastor. You do not get to pastor the church you might want to pastor. You might not get to teach what you want to teach. You might not have the people there you want to have there. The family you really like might leave, and the family you hope miss church this weekend might stay.
You have to catch a vision in your heart that the church is utterly essential. It has to be in you so others can catch it. There is a movement across the globe right now and it is utterly satanic, and sadly people from all streams of Christianity are embracing it, even the grace and faith people. It basically says that all the important things about following Christ we can do on our own, and going to church is really a bonus, a superfluous matter of our personal preference like whether we watch a film in the cinema or our own TV, or watch the football in the stadium or in the pub or at home. A lot of it stems from a real sense in our culture that no one should be accountable to anyone else. So even when some people go to church, it is because today, I believe this service is important for my personal path that I designed all by myself, rather than a deep conviction that church is essential to God’s plan for every single Christian. Many see church as a nice optional part of their very personal walk with God – and by personal I mean they designed it all by themselves to suit themselves. But the truth is that the church is the heart of God’s purpose for planet earth. The truth is that the church is the heart of God’s plan for grace to be revealed. The church is utterly essential. You cannot be church at home. You cannot be church at home even if you have a Bible, Alexa playing worship songs, and listening to your favourite Bible teacher. That will never ever lead to spiritual health.
The culture of the day is private, personal, and consumer-driven. We are not to be like that. We need to be part of a robust Christian church that we have found our place in and are planted in.
It is so important that as pastors we set the pace – what I means is that we attend the church God has placed us in. That may sound strange to you, but I know pastors who are pastoring the wrong church. They have been led to Jesus to pastor a certain church, but they took another church because of money, prestige, ease, or a host of other reasons. Do not be that pastor!
There are enough people who go to the church they feel like going and never take the time to find out where Jesus Christ of Nazareth has placed them. I know people who have chosen churches based on the race of the pastor, based on the landscaping of the building, based on nice short services, and a whole host of reasons that are nothing to do with Jesus.
We need to be where we are planted. As a pastor you need to let people know that they need to be in local church, planted where Jesus instructs them to be planted, and then model it by being where God planted you!
Even someone like Kenneth Hagin tells a story where he pastored the wrong church because the board of deacon voted him in with 100% of the vote going to him. He later found out that God does not lead by 100% votes of deacons, but God leads by the Spirit of God!
I pastored a church I was never supposed to pastor before I started Tree of Life Church because I had a godly desire to be in ministry combined with an ungodly impatience. That is a fatal combination. I have seen so many people shipwreck due to that. They go to Bible College and graduate assuming they know everything, assuming they know more than people who have been doing the ministry for decades, and they want to preach and minister, and they feel that their pastor is holding them back, so they wander from church to church looking for a church that will platform them, rather than kneeling down and asking Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, which church they should be planted in and serve.
Maybe it will take 4-5 years of serving before you are released into ministry, maybe longer. It took me a decade between graduating Bible College and being ready to start Tree of Life. Rather 10 years serving a local church and learning how church functions than 40-50 years wandering around looking for a place to minister and never finding one, getting jealous of the people who put the Lord first when it came to church, not their desire to minister or have a ministry. Trust me – I know these people, this is not just me trying to push people into being planted. I, like Paul, genuinely only desire fruit to your account.
Now when I started Tree of Life Church in 2010, there were thousands of people who never came. People stayed away by busloads! We were a small, struggling church. During that time, I started by faith on a Christian radio station across London. It cost a lot and took a lot of time, but it really helped grow our church in the early days.
Anyway, one day I got a phone call. I was still working part-time, I was earning less per month than my mortgage payment, praying in tongues just to put food on the table every week, and really not seeing any signs of growth in the church, not in numbers, not in spirituality, not in anything. The phone call was from a church of several hundred people just south of the river. Their pastor had just abandoned them to take on a larger church, and they wanted a new pastor. They wanted to pay triple what I was earning, buy me a new car, and give me a house to live in. They had heard me on radio and loved my teaching and were very keen.
I must admit I was tempted, but only for a couple of seconds, before I told them thanks but no thanks, because I know where God called me and what God called me to do. I don’t just tell people choose the right church and get plugged in, I live it.
Our society is in a mess because people do not realize the value of local churches, and this shift starts from the pastors, the shepherds of the churches. If the pastor is in the right place, the Lord of the Church, the Head of the Body will bring the right people to us and join them to us. But it starts with us being where we should be.
Now when you are the pastor, and in the right place, doing the right thing, how can you help people find their place in the church?
- Constantly teach on the need to submit to the Lord and be led by the Spirit
- Teach people about the value of not looking on externals but look on the heart (I will cover some of this in my next blog post on this)
- Never compromise to keep someone. What do I mean by that? If someone says for example “I will stay at this church if you let me preach”, or “I will only be in the services where I am leading worship” show them the door. Swiftly. The church is not their personal sandbox, it is the body of Christ, and it is utterly essential
- Don’t let your ego in the game! In your spirit, you would rather pastor the 50 people God has called to you, than 500 people who are not called to you.
Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers 