What is the Greatest Mission of the Church Today?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;^AR)"> against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galations 5:22-24

What is the greatest purpose for the church internally today? I would argue that it is for us to be unified. We should be unified through Christ. As the above passage talks about the fruits that should be present in the church if the Spirit is inside of us -however many times there are rotten fruits of hatred, deceitfulness, meanness, and crookedness. Why is this? Should we not love our brother more then ourselves?

I think the greatest purpose of the church today is to be unified. So many times even as ministers we are tempted to institute change so that we can see numerical growth even if it splits a church - we should not be legalistic in worship, however change should not occur for our agenda's but for God's agenda. I would confess to you until recently my ministry has been about what I thought was best for the church - which was change. However today I can say that I have no agenda but God's - and I believe God's agenda for the American church is to be unified and radical.

Being the music guy - the most divisive ministry in the church - how is this even possible to accomplish in the church today? Part of me (even though I love music) agrees with the passage if your eye causes you to stumble pluck it out - I believe the church can exist without music; the but the calling in me cries out what is the purpose of music in the church? In the typical baptist church we are not creedal in nature; being we do not say creeds or have beliefs that we quote each week in unity. I believe our music serves this purpose. We come together as people who are radically different but yet have been radically changed admitting that we are nothing God is everything. This is unity. We are united through Christ - we may not like the same music styles, we may not like the same clothing attire, we may not like the same hobbies, but the reason we join on Sundays is in unity to say that Jesus Christ has pulled us out of the debts that we could not pull our selves out of.

So what is the purpose of the church. Unity. Old, Young, Black, White, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian. The Church needs to be unified. we can only do this through Christ - we may disagree on many things - but if we agree on Christ has pulled us from the debts of our sins then we need to unite through His blood.


Jonathan

I Could Care Less About The Music.

I am a musician. I have a Bachelor of Music in Church Music degree which I worked my tail off for. I play more instruments then I have fingers; I play more instruments well then I have fingers on one hand. I am a musician. That being said, I have an odd statement to make: "I really could care less about music". I think at one point and time I did care about the music, but then God revealed to me His vastness and supremacy. My only desire now is one to declare that to the whole world.

Music is an amazing thing - it can soften the hardest hearts, it can bring people to tears, it can motivate and fire up armies about to go into battle - it is the greatest conveyor of emotion that exists in the world as we know it. Aligning Pitches placed in certain time spans apart from each other, attached with texts, is the melting pot that we commonly know as music. With the emotions that are attached with songs, it is no wonder that we can become so attached to certain songs; it is an emotional nostalgia of sorts.

The musician in me is proud of this - however more importantly then being a Musician I am a Christian. The Christian in me sees how unhealthy this is and has been to the church throughout history. We each are fighting an inner battle to get back to that point of Emotional Nostalgia whether it be "Open the Eyes of My Heart" that we sung at a camp when we where 13 or the singing of "I'll Fly Away" as a child with our parents in church - each is an unhealthy desire. As Christians it is important for us to remember times in our life in which God has worked inside of us, however we should not tear down or destroy what God is doing now in order to return to that emotional place within us.

I could care less about music. Such an odd statement from a musician? The chief end of man is to glorify God. I am not called to be a Church Musician - my call is to be a teacher of Worship to God's people. How can we declare to God His worth each Sunday in a way that we are broken before Him declaring there is nothing good in us apart from Him? How can we come to God each Sunday and understand His sacrifice for us and declare His Worth for it? How can we come to God each Sunday as a diverse people unified?

I could care less about the music. The purpose of my life is to Glorify God - True Worship occurs in a Church when it is unified in that statement.











jc