“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it,” said Jesus to Peter in Matthew 16:18.
We are in a cultural moment where the church is reeling. Morally fallen pastors, Post-Covid-Lockdown church attendance plunges, congregations divided over politics, masks and vaccines, BLM, CRT, OMG…we are living in crazy times.
And many pastors are reeling, running from one dumpster fire to the next trying to throw a cup of water on each of them. And all to no avail.
So what’s a pastor to do? What action can a church leader take that will put the fires out once and for all?
The answer is this…none. Dumpster fires have been around since Adam took a bite of forbidden fruit and will be around to Jesus finally makes everything right.
But the good news is this…it’s not our job to put the fires out. It’s our job to preach the Gospel and to get our congregations doing the same. As Charles Spurgeon once said, “It’s the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole Gospel to the whole world.“
Jesus put it this way, “go and make disciples of all nations….“
Pastors, church leaders, youth leaders, it’s time to play some offense.
The church has been too busy running around, trying to put out fires when our business is building wells that produce Living Water. Build enough of them and all those fires will eventually get doused by a flood of hope.
Now is the time to mobilize your congregation to advance the Gospel. Now is the time to energize your people to share the cure for racism, division, confusion and delusion.
The cure is the Gospel. You know it and I know it. So let’s do something about it!
Henry David Thoreau once said, “For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, one strikes at the root.” Only the Gospel can strike at the root of evil.
