BECOMING A GREAT CHURCH: (in God's Eyes)
MATTHEW 16:18
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
“ Upon this rock I will build my church,” Christ said to Peter in part. He was referring to the Rock of Peter’s confession; “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Vs. 16)
The Church of the Living God is a great Church, of that we cannot doubt. But, what is a great church? Our definition of greatness differs from God’s definition, most of the time. What is considered great in Heaven may go unnoticed on earth, and also that which is looked upon, as great on earth may not be esteemed so in Heaven.
When a church is called great, speaking of a local assembly, the speaker may be referring to the building, the wealth, or the historic importance of the church. He may mean prestige, the number of members, or the number in attendance regularly.
The early church, written of in the book of Acts, had been given great power to witness, great grace and great fear was upon them all, speaking of a great reverence for God. There was, of course, great persecution upon them. They were doing a great work for God and seeing great numbers of lives changed.
The early church had no great buildings; they were not a very rich church, although they sacrificed greatly to give. (Acts 5) They had no world famous pastors. These men are well known to us now, but they were not well known then.
They had the fullness of the Holy Spirit to give them great power to witness, great grace to give, great prayers were offered, and great answers were given. A great God was working through it, and a great work for God was being done by it.
Let us not forget for a moment that our organization and efficiency without His sufficiency is a great deficiency. Without Him, we can do nothing. Our victory is in Him by Him and through Him. To God be the glory!
A great church asks:
1. What brings glory to God?...vs...What brings in a crowd?
2.
How do we communicate Scripture accurately and boldly?...vs...How can water down the Word of God as nothing more than "pop culture" mixed with social & moral lifestyle recommendations?
3. How can we develop fruit bearing disciples...vs...How do we get people back who left our church?
We believe it’s time to lift up God’s Church. God has been using all of history to lift up the body of Christ to draw nations into his kingdom. We see a great church network rising up across the country committing to getting back to keeping the "main thing" the "main thing" Reaching people with the timeless message of Christ.
"We believe the church is to be GREAT as Christ describes for the church and each of us to live to bring about His kingdom not a single church’s legacy.“
(Bill Craig, Lead Pastor)
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We believe the church is moving away from the “mega church” of the 80’s & 90’s and to a biblical “MEGA” church model for today. The word Jesus uses is the Greek word “MEGA”. The “Mega” church shift in the 80’s & 90’s was useful, but often focused on doing whatever it took to bring in the crowd. In the process it blurred lines between edgy and distasteful, cool and cheesy, creativity and gimmicky, Campuses and castles.
We ascribe to a simple philosophy and a biblical mandate. We believe the church is to be GREAT as Christ describes for the church and each of us to live to bring about His kingdom not a single church’s legacy.“
aGreatChurch Network
We can provide resources, fellowship, and connectivity for you. We are stronger together. Our network can assist you if you are planning to plant a church, have recently planted a church, or are looking to turn your church around to being a great church.
You will have use of our resources, website, a great church name and much more. You can be a satellite location or join our network fellowship of churches. Simply contact us, join our network, then add your location to aGreatChurch family (ie. A Great Church Land O Lakes, A Great Church Orlando, A Great Church Jacksonville). We can share associated resources within the network to help get your church off the ground and make great impact through our network of churches. Let us help you put more energy into reaching your community, developing leaders and more.
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