COMMUNITY
THE KINGDOM FOCUSED CHURCH BY PAUL BARTLETT
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declines, it’s my fault also. When actually, the Kingdom of God is both mysterious and organic: Mysterious because it has the ability to grow with or without me; organic because there’s no formula but there is a natural process.
f you didn’t have much time on earth to speak to people, you would definitely focus your thoughts and message on what you believe was most important right?
So, what did Jesus speak about when He appeared after being raised from the dead? According to the Apostle Paul, it wasn’t how much the Cross hurt, or some new fishing tips – He spoke about the Kingdom (Acts 1:1-3). I personally would have liked more lessons on how to build the Church. We often believe that the Church and the Kingdom are the same thing, however they are different. For example, it would sound funny to replace the word Kingdom with Church, in Matthew 6:33 what if we said, “Seek first the Church of God”, doesn’t sound right does it? When the disciples were sent out to preach on behalf of Jesus in Luke 9:2, they were actually asked to preach the gospel of the ‘Kingdom’.
PASTOR’S CHALLENGE: WHAT IF YOU PERSONALLY TITHED 10% OF YOUR WEEK INTO THE COMMUNITY?
So, what’s this got to do with Community Engagement? In the Mark 4:26 model our role is to plant the seed, we then join our community to produce the fruit. This can often bring out impatience in all of us because that seed takes time to grow and develop. I know as a leader, I have often been like an impatient child waiting for the fruit to be produced.
The Church has only been around for 2000 years, but the Kingdom forever. We’ve been given keys to the Kingdom, not the keys to the Church.
The important thing to remember when engaging with your community is the process we are most responsible for is sowing the seed. It is small acts of kindness and small ongoing relationships that start to grow before those people appear in one of our church services.
Matthew 16:19 NLT says, “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”
Allow me to give you a Senior Pastor challenge – we all love the biblical concept of tithing, so what if we used this principle and you personally tithed 10% of your week into the community? Four hours of seed sowing as a sports coach, turning up to your business chamber events, joining a club. Imagine the stories you could tell from the platform! Not to mention the seed you would be planting!
We are to open the Kingdom of Heaven with them on earth. So why is this subtle difference so important? It’s important because we are often Church centric more than we are Kingdom centric. When it comes to being Church centric, we often look for formulas to grow our church, but according Mark 4:26 the Kingdom grows even when I am not working on it. When it comes to the Church, the unsaid, but inferred culture says to me; if the Church is growing, I did it! But if attendance
Paul Bartlett is the National Director of ACC Community Engagement.
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