Taken from 100 Years From Now: Sustaining a Movement for Generations
In heaven, Jesus, the Lamb of God, is not a side issue; He is front and center.
Pastor Steve shared how we can lose Jesus in the midst of religion based on Luke 2:41-44
1. They lost Jesus while doing their religious duties.
2. They lost Jesus but didn’t realize it. (Scary thought)
3. They assumed Jesus was with them, but He was not. ( a more scary thought and thing to happen for a Christian leader and church)
There are a lot of churches where the center is not built on the Lord. Here are some examples:
1. The preacher-centered church. Seen a lot of this churches where the hero is the senior pastor and not Jesus. Ministry names are centered around them rather than on Christ.
2. The experience- centered church – A lot of experience centered church is based on what I can get from God and from this religious experience. It is always about the great worship, the signs and wonders, the gold dust. Nothing wrong with all that I mentioned until that becomes the center of why people go there.
3. The worship-centered church. The worship of worship is troubling today. We have worship leader celebrities. The Presence becomes more important than the Person who is present.
4. The doctrine-centered church. Correct doctrines are great and necessary but not at the cost of taking Christ out of the center. You know what I mean, when church becomes Bible study all the way and we forgot about reaching the lost and making Christ front and center because we are busy studying.
5. The cause-centered church. It is a church that has a great compassion ministry but no matter how important helping the poor is, it should never be the center.
6. The meeting-centered church. It is a Sunday church. It is open on Sundays and that’s it.
7. The fellowship-centered church. My Pinoy readers would relate to this. They follow the one another verses and take it to heart that there is endless fellowship among each other.
Jesus is not to be top priority on our long list of priorities, the first of many. Raher, He is to have supremacy, meaning He is the foundation and cornerstone, the starting line and the finish line.