We Can Only Visit the Kingdom

The kingdom is experiential; we enter it when we are in harmony with God’s will. We exit the kingdom when we are not in harmony with God’s will. The Church is both organizational and experiential, we remain part of the church even when are not in harmony with God’s will. Paul blasts the Corinthians who were getting drunk and being rude gluttons at the Lord’s Table. Their sinful activities were church activities, but they were not activities that God recognized in his kingdom. The only way we can remain in the kingdom is to remain totally in God’s will.

The objective of the church is not primarily to grow itself. Churches, at any juncture of history, are too full of sinful people to make themselves their own objective. The corrupt Roman Catholic Church of Luther’s day were Church Growth enthusiasts.

Women and the Holy Spirit

If we ask, “what would Jesus do in His new body, i.e. the church; that would be a continuation of what he did in his original body?” The answer is obvious; he would continue to make growing the kingdom his top priority. When Jesus ministered on earth he spoke often about the priority of the kingdom, but He mentioned the church only twice. He did say, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). But it is obvious that the reason he would build his church is to continue the work he began. And that work was the building of his Father’s Kingdom.

What do you think Jesus would do with the physically disabled?
90% of the physically disabled in America have no relationship with a church!
80% of American families with a disabled member experience a divorce.

When we consider the ministry of Jesus in his original body, it is inconceivable that his New Testament body, the church, is so disengaged from the physically disabled who were so important to him while he was physically on earth. For all the good things about the Church Growth Movement, its label communicates the wrong objective. If it had been called “Growing God’s Kingdom Through Churches” it would have had a clumsy name, but it also would have been right on target.

Some of us grew up reciting the Lord’s Prayer from Luke eleven in church every Sunday. We are familiar with the part that says, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Those fourteen words may be so familiar that they no longer have an impact on us. But take a second look. It tells us “wherever God’s will breaks into human experience the kingdom is operative!” Wow, that is pretty powerful!

And it also raises some serious questions. Is God’s will always being done in every church? Of course the answer is no. All of us have been involved in church efforts that in retrospect we know could not have been God’s will. Remember the people who didn’t appreciate the first MOPS group or the ones who almost killed the Calvary Chapel Movement.

The kingdom is not the result of human organization, or fallible belief systems. That is why there are no Liberal/ Fundamentalist Controversies in the kingdom. Many church leaders have longed to equate their church ministry with God’s kingdom. But the minute they take a stand on issues such as the role of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life or the role of women in church, they risk being wrong and you can’t be wrong in the kingdom.