An LEC intern praying for a wounded homeless man in San Francisco. Kingdom Come!

I’m frustrated but not without hope with regard to the shape of the Church in my generation. God is clearly moving across the world with fresh expressions of Church and the mission of God that is actually producing obedient disciples of Jesus who love God and the advance of the Kingdom more than their own comfort. But an incessant problem must be addressed.

Believers have not been called to mark time on the planet till the Second Coming. No—we have been called to co-labor with God in the power of the Holy Spirit to advance the Kingdom by saying what Jesus wants said and doing what Jesus wants done. This is the mandate of the Great Commission for every believer—everywhere—all of the time. The Church that Jesus commissioned is not a building or a collection of religious programs (that primarily take place on Sunday). The Church that Jesus commissioned is the Body of Christ carrying on the mission of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit wherever a believer happens to be doing life. The members of this Body flesh out the feet, hands and mouth of Jesus in a broken and oppressed world. The Church is intended to be a movement of God, not a monument of programs, “right” beliefs and “correct” behaviors that tend to form a huge disconnect with a lost and broken world. Countless leaders and churchgoers have conveyed with me that they know something is desperately wrong with the “sit and split”, consumeristic form of western Christianity that is the norm for most, but few are willing to be courageously obedient to follow God’s leading through his Word or the nudges of his Spirit to recalibrate what is being done.

God have mercy on your Bride and help her to wake up to her true destiny to make obedient disciples of Jesus and to partner with you to transform cities through authentic movements of the gospel.