How would Christ want His Church?

How do you want your tea? The first time I was asked this question my mind went blank. I had no idea how I should respond. After waiting without any answer coming from me, the person doing the tea went on....do you want your tea with/without sugar, with/without milk? All I knew then was add hot water, sugar and milk and there you're with your tea. I now know that while some people want the tea bag in the mug others don't. Also, you need to ask how many spoons of sugar they want in their tea. One mug of tea doesn't fit all.

My son loves his sandwich, but not any sandwich. He's particularly interested in what goes in his sandwich. Currently, his favourite filling is chicken slice on butter or cheese. Knowing he likes butter and cheese doesn't mean I can just go ahead and do any of them. Any time he asks for sandwich I've to ask him how he wants it. I've tried him my best fillings like tomatoes, cucumber and sardine but he always says no.  He insists on getting what he wants and that's what he gets.

Imagine we run the church that way when we have to go to the founder, Jesus Christ, and ask how he wants His church to be run. Many would argue we do that any way but do we really? We might have asked Him few questions in the early stages but how often do we ask His views about how we should run His church?

Church is pretty much run like a government department. When there's an issue we sit down, brainstorm for a while and a few minutes later a decision is made. Christ has been relegated to the role of a chairman. The real show is run by the CEO's- the Pastors, Revds and the church leaders. It's only when things get really bad before we call in the chairman. It's only then that the word prayer is highly recommended.

Democracy is much cherished in church than prayer. So far as people voted at a meeting the decision is carried regardless of whether that's what Christ would want or not. We just make the tea for Him according to our taste. The founder doesn't get a say in how His business is run. Is that fair?  Many think they have the knowledge and power to deal with anything and don't need the help of the founder. How many of us really pray before we take part in very important decisions in church? We were only supposed to act as caretakers but have assumed full responsibility. We don't want to seek the face of the owner any more. No wonder the church is in such a state.

We have tried all we want and don't seem to be working. A time will come when the owner will take his keys from us for not running the business the way He wanted. It's not too late to admit to the owner that we have run out of ideas and seek His wisdom and guidance. It is His church and only He knows how He wants it.

If we're so much concerned about getting a mug of tea right as possible, how much more church decisions. It's about time we found out how He wants His church.

Recipe for a Fruitful Church

Many of us have been to places and tasted food and loved it so much that we have asked for the recipe so that we could try it at home. The method for attaining a desired result is not only limited to food but also school administration, work, church and raising up a family. Many have packaged these recipes and made some cash from it. I wonder how many of us have tried the nice recipe found in the the book of Acts 2: 42. These are 4 recipes for a fruitful church and they are; Doctrine or Teaching, Fellowship, Breaking of Bread or Communion and Prayer. Apart from few churches I know who don't have regular communion, the rest of the recipes i.e. teaching, fellowship, and prayer are common rituals with most churches. The key question is what should be the end result of all these teaching, fellowship, communion and prayer? It could be seen from the referenced text that all these activities yielded result hence peoples lives were saved as more people joined them, Acts 2:47. If this church was a company you could say that they had gains or profit as a result of the investment made. What you sow is what you get all things being equal.The church invested in those things and yielded results. There are some instances when we have followed the recipe instructions given to us but have not arrived at the desired results. In some cases we will phone friends to complain that our food didn't taste what we had wanted, or if its not about food we would go to some forum to complain bitterly that we didn't get the right result after following set of instructions. Some might end up getting a refund of their money if they had bought the recipe. What we often forget is that the mistake could be our own making. In the case of food recipe you might not get the desired result for some of the following reasons; poor quality of the ingredients, wrong proportion, wrong timing. So why is that some churches have followed these recipes diligently but have not had the desired result? Have those churches got too much and less of some ingredients? Have they for e.g. spent too much time on teachings and less on prayer and vice versa? Have we completely forgotten some ingredients? One important ingredient on the list which can easily be forgotten is fellowship. The only way to attain a fruitful church is to pay equal attention to these recipes- Doctrine/Teaching, Fellowship, Communion, Prayer. Have you critically checked your prayer life? What teachings are you giving to people? And just what do you call fellowship?