How to find Jesus

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 22 April 2005 00:46:08

"Anyone who is to find Christ must find the church...now the church is not wood or stone, but the company of people who believe in Christ!"
-- Martin Luther

Thanks to Burnt Sienna for the quote.

First of all this makes me think, "Get out there." If people need to meet the church in order to meet Jesus, then we'd better take the church out to where people are - work, school, the cricket club, night club, market etc.

Then it makes me breath a sigh of relief, because it means I don't have to do everything on my own. I don't believe that one believer in Christ, is the church. I think the church is a group of Jesus followers. That means we can share the job of making Jesus disciples within a community of people.

The thought of having to teach people make me turn cold. And I'm not very good at keeping in contact with friends day to day. But if the church is a group of people, and people meet Jesus when they meet the church, then I can relax and be myself. I can talk to strangers, and introduce them to the part of the church that is great at developing friendships. I can ask deep questions, and let someone else teach us the answer. When someone else has a dream, I can say, "what a great idea, go for it, do it, I'll help you." I can start new stuff, and hang in there when it gets tough, and then make a space for others to join in.

Darren Rowse over at The Living Room has a great entry about fishing for people, complete with diagrams! I love diagrams. He makes the point, (as does Michael Frost in The shaping of things to come) that the fishermen Jesus was talking to never fished on their own, with a line, dragging in one fish at a time. They fished as a team, using nets to bring in a haul.

Doesn't that sound better than our western evangelical angst. I've always believed that the reason people didn't know Jesus was because I didn't tell everyone the whole gospel message everytime I met them. How much better to know I can be myself to help the church fulfill her purpose, and that my purpose can not be realised on my own, but is fulfilled by being part of the church.