Luke 14:28, Ephesians 1:23, 1 Corinthians 10:31



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Much of our desperation to be relevant to society causes us to copy the activity of the world. We miss the point and opportunity to influence when we copy. I believe that Church is designed to be in front, pace setting and innovative. We don't need to copy the world; we need to realise our design and God-given creative genius and operate in such a way that the world looks at the Church and thinks, 'WOW, we should do that'.
Allow the Spirit of God to birth new and fresh ways of communication. Don't focus on the TV but get a grip on the Bible and see how God can work through you the creative genius that makes the Genesis story so amazing.

Begin to believe in yourself as much as God believes in you. Begin to get excited about the fact that God uses even a donkey to speak so he can most definitely use you (see Numbers 22:21-41)!

Finally, Plan Correctly - God is a God of order. When you look at God's first operation in Genesis we see Him begin to bring order. God doesn't do things in a shabby way. He does them in a most excellent way.

God only gives His best for us. Jesus wasn't a second thought. Jesus was God's 'Plan A'. God doesn't do things by half, God always excels!

When we look at church activity, sometimes it is hard to see that we are His people. When we look at the state of our buildings and how we throw together our meetings. How about we try and reflect our God so that people don't find it too difficult to imagine a perfect God loving them and wanting a relationship with them?

Think about some of the following: The way you prepare your musicians; the way the meeting is scheduled, how the building that you are meeting in looks, the way you dress, the standard of the refreshments, the way the venue is laid out and even the smile on people's faces as they welcome people into the House of God.

I believe that there is no way that God would want us to be disorganised, shabby and half hearted in our approach to church.

He demands our best. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, 'Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.' [NIV]

Luke 14 leads us to understand that if we are to build properly we are directed to build intentionally. You don't have to just let church happen; you can be intentional and make church happen. Scripture says that 'Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted'. [Psalm 127:1 NLT] Our efforts are wasted if we don't fit in to His schedule and His way of building and we know that God builds with intention. He intends His church to be the beautiful Bride of Christ.

Let us build accordingly. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.