Be What You Want the Church to Become

I have been digging through my files and searching the web trying to find out who said this first: "Be what you want the church to become." I cannot find it, but I know at least that I'm not the one who made it up. I wish I had.

What a simple principle! Those in the church want the church to become something more, something greater, something better: purer, kinder, better at reaching out, more aware of those on the fringe, more involved, stronger at teaching. No matter if your present view of the church is strongly positive or strongly negative, we want the church to be better.

So, be that. That's pretty simple. You want the church to be better at meeting the needs of the poor, then meet the needs of the poor! You want the church to be more prayerful, then pray more!

Remember that the church is not a building or an organization - it is a gathering of people. Therefore, the only way for the gathering to become something more, the people need to become something more.

Don't wait for a program. Don't expect the leadership to be the only source of ideas and efforts. Be what you want the church to become. Certainly, there are certain things that should be checked with the leadership, first, but you don't need permission (or a program) to become more evangelistic, for example. You don't need permission (or a program) to become more familiar with what the Bible says.

It's easy to complain and find fault. It's hard to bring change. But the simplest, easiest, most effective way for the church to become something greater is for the people to choose to be what they want the church to become. (This goes for the leadership, too!)