I wrote this in 2014 I think it is even more relevant now.
Over the last few months I have been looking at the concept that everyone has an agenda. One of the things I have said is that even churches have an agenda. Some are cults and want to indoctrinate you into a particular set of beliefs. Others just want your money, if you give you will get mentality. The other day I was challenged as a Christian leader to explain what my ministry agenda was.
There are many different churches with many different ministry emphasis, here are a few of my favorites:
The End Times emphasis;
There are many small churches that have a consistent stream of ministries coming through their churches preaching that the end is near and that Jesus is coming back soon. Or at least by this time next week. They close the doors and let their ears be tickled by the expert analysis given by the expert preacher on the events unfolding right on their doorstep. The money we use is valueless, credit cards are of the devil and a sign of the Antichrist. European Union is the greatest evil under the sun and the wars and skirmishes in the east and the middle east all point to one thing. The rise of the Antichrist and the start of the seven years of tribulation but don't worry we as Christians won't be here because we will be raptured. All of this is very clearly seen in the Bible and the book of Revelations, right down to the dragonfly shaped killing machines that are in fact Apache attack helicopters. All these are signs of the end times.
The church is Jewish emphasis;
We as a Christian church need to support Israel, visit there during the feast of tabernacles take Jewish names and pray every day for the peace of Jerusalem. My preaching should have a Jewish biblical slant and I should be regularly blowing a rams horn in my worship on a Sunday morning along with my Jewish dances to help usher in the presence of the Holy Spirit. In other word because Jesus was a Jew and the Jews are God's chosen people and because we are a grafted in branch on the olive tree the church should be Jewish in its orientation.
The Creationist Philosophical emphasis;
The Earth is only just over six thousand years old because Dr the Bishop Usher said so. The world was created in six literal days and if you don't believe that you are a blasphemer. Either you believe all the bible not just parts or you are going to hell. The whole world was flooded during the time of Noah. The fossil record and dinosaurs can easily be explained from the events of Genesis. Evolution is of the devil and no right thinking Evangelical/Pentecostal Christian should ever contemplate believing such rubbish.
What then is my agenda? Well I had to think long and hard about this. I believe that Jesus is coming back. When and how exactly he will do this I do not know. My friend tells me that thousands of people have given their lives to Christ over the last thirty years because of his end times preaching. A fact I am happy to openly dispute, because the churches he goes to only have Christians in them and many have not seen a soul won for Christ in decades. And the fact that he himself has a church of twenty five very dedicated end time believers. I believe that the Jews are God's chosen people and that Israel has a special place in God's heart. But the church is not Jewish, it is Argentinean or African or Russian or Chinese. The great thing about Christianity is that its message stays the same no matter what your culture. I believe that God created the world and that the Hebrew poetry of the first three chapters of the book of Genesis explains it in a wonderful poetic way. As to when God created I don't know I wasn't there.
1 Corinthians 1:18,20 and 22.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Where are the wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for philosophy, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.
I believe that many Churches and church leaders are becoming just like those Jews that Paul writes about always looking for a sign or like those Greeks following a particular Philosophy. This mindset does nothing for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God, it merely panders to the few who have lost their way and forgotten the last words of Jesus. My Agenda is simple, Preach Jesus and Him Crucified and leave the rest to God. I believe in creating a strong church that can meet the needs of those new believers. Helping those churches create the right Christian culture and atmosphere. I believe in raising up and developing good consistent Christian leadership to take the church forward until Jesus returns, whenever that might be.
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