Revisiting Vision: Disciples, and not Organizations

Revisiting Vision: Disciples, and not Organizations

And Jesus came and spike to them saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen Mathew 28:18-20

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians  3
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. 11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Following the present trend in Christian ministry one may find it hard to know exactly what Christ commanded the church to do.

It is difficult to know if what we are sent to is to build organizations or build people. It is easier to see multinational empires built from the apparatus of Christ's command than see people within the system truly observing what Christ has taught.

It seems teaching the nations to observe all Christ taught and did has become secondary to making the church organization world class and making names and money out of it.

When we say we are doing ministry and getting results, the latter is what we speak of.

But my concerns as the Lord impressed these thoughts in my mind in the last few weeks is that of our works being tested by fire. According to 1Corinthians 3. If what many do today in the name of ministry is taken through fire for testing will it remain?

Will the empires, both small and great we are building in the name of ministry withstand the test of fire and not be burned?

Can the message we preach and the people we produce withstand the test of fire and not be burnt?

How close to the standard of Christ's expectations of ministry are we producing in the name of results? In the light of the scripture passage above, what will the results of our efforts be?

Are we making disciples for Christ or are we building organizations and self aggrandizing systems. What is your vision like.

We shouldn't forget that whatever we define ministry success to be will draw our most attention, determine attitude, justify our efforts, command our expenditures and  determine our expectations. We see nothing outside what we see success to be.

So if we miss it at the point of success definition, we miss the way ab initio, and every other thing can only be means to the end of what success means to us.

The closer we are to making disciples for Christ and getting people given us to be conformed to Christ's image in character and in charisma, the closer we are to building on the foundation of Christ with the indestructible gold quality. When that goes through fire, it comes out shining even the more...unlike the stubble, hay and wood that'll perish in the fire....

That we are privileged with great or small crowd in our ministry isn't success yet, those people aren't raw materials to building an empire but are entities that we shall give account for...each is a potential disciple of Christ, each has the capacity to come out like Christ in everything and to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God...depending on the ministry mentality of success we provide and pursue...

I pray that we will build upon the foundation of Christ already laid the gold quality that no fire can destroy and our reward shall not be denied in Jesus name!

Good Morning!